Translyvanian Terror
by Zephi the Fox
Summary: Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Creme, Shadow, and Rouge all win a free trip to Translyvania, but their vacation will soon turn into a nightmare. FINISHED!
1. The Unexpected Email

(A/N My first Fanfic ever, hope you like it! I'm not sure if I have to do this but I would like to say Sonic characters do not legally belong to me. Have fun reading, correcting my horrible grammar, and otherwise mercilessly berating me!)

Sonic woke up from a deep sleep with a loud yawn. He jumped down from the top of a bunk bed and walked up to a window. He looked down from the seventh story of an apartment building. He stretched his arms out with another yawn and pulled on his shoes. In a streak of blue, he ran into the kitchen with a bowl of cereal.

Back in the room, on the bottom bunk, a furry figure jumped out of bed too, it was Tails. He pulled on his own shoes and slumped into the bathroom to brush his teeth and comb out his hair.

Sonic had already wolfed down his food in the kitchen and walked into the bedroom. He jumped up onto a hammock where Knuckles was sleeping.

"Wake up sleepy head! You aren't gonna lie in bed all day!" Sonic said.

"Day hasn't even started yet, let me get some sleep!" Knuckles said with an irritated voice. He pushed Sonic out of the hammock and rolled over.

"Suit yourself, no breakfast for you." Sonic shrugged.

Tails walked out of the bathroom and into the small kitchen. He pulled some chocolate milk out of the fridge and poured himself a glass. He sat at a small table with his glass and silently drank it while he read the newspaper.

"Same old boring world as I can see, no eggman problems for a while." Tails sighed setting down the newspaper.

Sonic ran into the room and sat down at the table.

"Morning Tails, you sleep well?" Sonic asked, obviously filled with energy.

"No" Tails grumbled.

Tails got up and grabbed his laptop off of a desk. He got online and was sorting through his email.

"Junk, junk, junk, advertising, junk, newsletter, junk……." Tails grumbled as he deleted so far everything. He held his mouse over an email titled "Greetings from Transylvania!"

Tails clicked it out of curiosity. He silently read the message while Knuckles walked in rubbing his eyes.

"So much for a good night's sleep" Knuckles said yawning.

Knuckles made some toast and was pouring himself some orange juice when……….

"SONIC, KNUCKLES, YOU WON'T BELIEVE THIS!"

Knuckles spilled the entire carton of orange juice on the floor.

"What's the big deal Tails?" Sonic said looking at Tails with a weird look on his face.

"We won a contest for a free trip to Transylvania! Come look at this email!" Tails exclaimed.

Knuckles looked at Tails with a death glare while Sonic walked over to the laptop and read the email aloud.

"Dear Mr. Miles Prower, We are very glad to tell you that you are the winner of our contest and have won a free trip with two of your best friends to a castle in Transylvania! You will be joined by a 1st place, 2nd place, and 3rd place winner in the castle along with their companion/companions. We shall pick and your two friends up at the Rentifi airport at 11:00am on October 3rd. If you do not come, our runner up will take your place. We hope to see you in Transylvania! If you have any questions please call us at 555-6546 before the flight."

Knuckles had wiped up all the orange juice and was looking at a calendar.

"Sorry to break it to you Tails, but it's October 3rd and we have 3 hours to get to the airport." Knuckles said.

"Well then. Let's hurry up and pack, I wouldn't want to miss the party!" exclaimed Sonic.

Tails jumped up from the table with his laptop turned off and under his arm as he ran towards the bedroom. Knuckles followed behind the two with a piece of toast in hand.

Tails was flying around the room with his tails twirling around like rotors searching for things to pack while Sonic sped around cleaning up and packing at the same time.

Knuckles walked into the room and just grabbed a bag next to his hammock. It was where he kept all of his stuff like a toothbrush and random crud like that.

In a matter of minutes, they were out the door. They were walking towards a bus stop to catch a ride to the airport. Tails took a look at an nearby clock and gasped.

"Sonic, Knuckles, we aren't going to get there on time!" Tails panicked.

Sonic looked at the time and then at Knuckles and Tails with a mischievous grin.

"I have an idea. Tails, go fly a few feet off the round, knuckles can grab you by your ankles"

Tails and Knuckles did what Sonic told them with confused looks on their faces.

"Ready, then lets go!" Sonic said as he grabbed knuckles by the ankles and sped down the sidewalk in the direction of the airport.

"Sonic, you could've warned us!" yelled Tails.

Sonic ignored him, most likely because he couldn't hear what Tails said.

Despite all that, they thanked Sonic when they arrived at the airport a couple of minutes later.

They all ran towards the airplane they were supposed to fly in with their tickets they printed. They were pretty surprised by who they saw at the terminal……..


	2. Winning Contestants

**(A/N Chapter 2! Sorry Chapter one was so short. I'll try to make this one longer. Thank you also for the kind reviews, I appreciate it. Now, on with the story!)**

"Amy, what are you doing here?" exclaimed Sonic.

Sitting in the terminal was a pink hedgehog with a dangerously short, red dress and matching boots. Her hair was kept out of her face by a red headband. Standing next to her was a cute orange rabbit with a dress on and a chao floating around her head. The rabbit also had long floppy ears that flung around with her body when she turned to look at Sonic and his friends.

Amy took one glance at Sonic, ran up to him, and hugged him with a grip that could squeeze the air out of anybody.

"Amy let go you're suffocating me!" Sonic wheezed.

"Sonic what are you doing here? Where are you going? Did you miss me? I missed you!" Amy was a bit over ecstatic, as you can hopefully guess.

"We won a trip to Transylvania; our plane should be leaving in a couple of minutes. Where are you going?" asked Tails.

"Well that's odd; we won a free trip to Transylvania too! We got the letter in the mail a couple of days ago." replied the rabbit, whose name was Crème.

"What a coincidence, do you think……….." Tail's words faded from his lips.

"Think what Tails?" Knuckles inferred.

"Oh, its nothing. Come on, the plane leaves in a few minutes, we don't want to miss our flight!" Tails exclaimed.

The group ran towards their plane after showing their tickets and dropping off their luggage. They mounted the plane and were directed by an attendant to where the owners of where they were staying sat. The group rested down on the chairs and fastened their seatbelts as they rose into the air. Tails noticed that the man sitting across from him was rather pale and looked as though he was starving. The other owner was a woman with dark brown hair and also looked pale and starving. Tails hoped they had food.

As soon as the plane leveled out and the captain announced they could take their seatbelts off, the woman smiled at them all.

"We have two other winners on the plane that got buckled in somewhere else on the plane, they should be here shortly." she said in a cheerful, but rather cold voice.

"Ah, speak of the devil, our two other contestants!" the man replied in the same cold voice as the woman's.

Two people that were only too familiar to Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles appeared next to them on the plane.

"Rouge and Shadow? What the hell are you doing here?" Knuckles asked rather abruptly.

"The same reason you are, I won the contest and decided to bring Shadow with me." Rouge answered.

"Brought me, more like dragged." Shadow mumbled.

"Please sit down everybody, I take it you are familiar with each other. That is good, you shouldn't mind staying in the same castle together then." said the woman with a wide grin.

"Castle?" They all said in unison.

"Oh yes, a castle. In fact it is the very castle in which Dracula himself was said to live." replied the man.

"B-b-but, wasn't Dracula a……" Tails gulped loudly "A vampire?"

"Oh heavens no child. That is nothing but a legend, a rumor, and a misunderstanding."

"Oh yes, quite a misunderstanding. Dracula's real name was Vlad Tepes. He was born in 1431 and died in 1476. He ruled Wallachia which is now known as Southern Romania from 1456 to his death. He was often called Dracul, which meant son of the dragon. It came from the emblem of his father which was what else but a dragon." the man added on to the woman's statement.

(A/N I would like to thank Arthur's web for the information on Dracula thank you.)

"That's so exhilarating; I hope Mr. Vlad doesn't haunt the halls of this castle." Rouge said sarcastically.

"There are rumors, but I doubt that there is even a single spirit in this place." the woman replied.

"Enough chit-chat. My name is Lucius Dracunala, you may call me Lucius if you'd like. This is my wife, Veronica. She lived in the castle when she was a young girl. If you have any questions, it would be best that you ask her." Lucius said.

"Yes, we are very happy to have you in our home. We don't have many visitors. We were preparing for your arrival all day. I have been tending to our gardens for the past couple of weeks; I haven't worked in it for so long."

The attendant walked by with a tray of food.

"I have some lunch for you, dig right in. We will pick it up for you later." the attendant said as she set the platters on a large table that she pulled from what they thought was the side of the plane. There was a clear spot where they could see through the window when the table was pushed up.

"We don't want anything, thank you anyways." both Veronica and Lucius said.

The attendant rolled away with the cart smiling as she left.

"Are you sure you don't want anything Mrs. And Mr. Dracunala, you look famished!" Tails said with a worried look on his face.

"Oh no we are quite fine, we prefer…different kinds of food. This plane food only nauseates us." said Veronica.

"Yes, well, we will leave you here to converse with each other for a while." said Lucius.

With that, Lucius and Veronica stood up and walked away towards the front of the plane.

"Well that was weird." said Tails.

"I don't see how, Veronica and Lucius seem courteous enough." shrugged Sonic.

"Weren't you paying attention? Veronica and Lucius were both really pale, but Veronica said she was outside for weeks caring for her garden!" Tails said in a low tone.

"So what, she probably has a conservatory instead of an outdoor garden, anyways, that doesn't explain why Lucius is pale." replied Rouge.

"But have you seen them? They look like they are abut to die of hunger, and they refused to eat!" Tails protested.

"Yeah, but they said that the food nauseated them. What's so weird about that?" replied Knuckles.

"It still seems weird though, like there is something they aren't telling us……."

"Give it a rest Tails, its not like they are out to get us or anything, just relax!" said Amy.

Crème stood moved a bit closer to Tails and smiled.

"Yeah Tails, just relax, we all will be fine. We should have fun while we can." Crème said trying to encourage Tails.

"I guess so; I'm just a bit paranoid that's all." Tails replied.

The rest of the day passed quickly. The group talked on and on about what they had been doing lately. Shadow didn't say anything about the matter, no surprise there. It had soon gotten late and everybody was tired. Rouge was leaned back in her chair with her eyes closed and her ears drooped. Sonic and Knuckles were both asleep on the spot and Amy was leaning against the back of her chair snoring silently.

Crème yawned quietly and rested her head lightly on Tail's lap.

Tails blushed so much; his cheeks were redder than Knuckles. He himself fell quickly into a deep sleep and soon was sleeping peacefully. Shadow was still awake and as alert as ever.

**(A/N awwwwww, Tails blushed! Anyways, please review and give your opinions. You know you love to. I'll post the next chapter as soon as I finish it.)**


	3. Some roads, woods, and a ballroom

**( A/N Thanks once again for the reviews, I will try to fix Cream's spelling, ad I hope you enjoy chapter 3!)**

Tails woke up the next morning with a stretch and a yawn to find Cream still asleep on his lap. Everyone else was most likely awake because their seats were all empty. Tails peered out the window to see they were still flying through the cloudy sky.

Cream awoke only seconds later and stood up straight in her seat. She yawned and looked over to Tails.

"Good morning Tails, did you sleep well? I've never slept on a plane before. It was kind of weird." said Cream.

" I haven't either, but yeah , I guess I slept all right." Tails replied.

Cream got up and looked down the aisle way, nobody could be seen.

"Tails, where is everybody, do you think we arrived and they left us on the plane?" Cream said with a frightened voice.

"I doubt it, we are still flying from what I can tell." he replied with a yawn.

"Come on Tails, lets go find the others" Cream said grabbing Tail's hand.

Cream pulled Tails through a door that led to another part of the plane. They walked down the aisle and after a bit of searching through the different aisles, they found everybody. Knuckles, Rouge and Shadow were in the back of the plane and Sonic and Amy were near the front with Lucius and Veronica.

"Excuse me Mister Dracanula, but do you know when we will be landing, I'm feeling a bit queasy." inferred Cream.

Lucius motioned toward the window which most likely meant to look out the window. Cream walked over to the window and saw an airport not too far off.

"Thank you mister Dracanula." said Cream.

"Please call me Lucius." he replied.

Cream and Tails sat down in a seat not too far from Lucius, Veronica, Sonic, and Amy. In a couple of minutes, the captain asked for all the passengers to fasten their seatbelts for the decent towards the ground. Cream was turning from orange to green as they went towards the ground. Luckily she managed to keep her lunch down in her stomach.

As soon as the plane landed the passengers were given permission to alight from the plane. Everybody filed down the stairs and soon had there feet planted firmly on the ground, which seemed like a great relief to Cream.

Veronica and Lucius had some of there servants take care of all the luggage and they were soon all leaving the airport.

Amy was looking in every direction and finally turned to Lucius and Veronica.

"Um, Lucius, where exactly is your car?" she asked.

"Oh, we don't have a car. We walk everywhere we go. We will be taking a forest path home so stay in a group. We don't want any of you lost." Veronica answered.

Tails gulped rather loudly at the thought of entering a dark forest path in Transylvania while they were on their way to Dracula's castle.

This seemed to have dawned on Amy and Cream also because they looked frightened as well. Sonic, Knuckles, and Rouge just looked around nervously for a second and then shook it off. Shadow of course, had no expression at all.

"Well, let us not stand here forever. Into the forest!" said Lucius.

Lucius motioned for his servants to follow and they were soon out of the airport. Tails turned his head in every direction curiously, but didn't see a forest path anywhere.

Lucius and Veronica paid Tails no mind and kept walking.

After what seemed like hours. Lucius and Veronica went off the road onto a forest trail.

Everybody seemed glad to get in the shade, they were all tired and sweaty from the long walk.

When they entered the forest everybody was in a tight group except for Veronica and Lucius, whose dark silhouettes could barely be seen through the darkness. Every now and then there would be the sound of a twig snapping or the soft rustle of a bush.

After being in the woods for a while, there was a loud smacking noise and a yell.

"What was that?" said Tails with a frightened voice.

"Nothing, just keep going, I want out of these woods as soon as possible" said Knuckles.

About an hour or so later, light was once again shed on the path and everybody saw the humongous castle looming before them. It was almost sunset and everybody was tired from walking all day along.

"We are finally here, now to escort you to your, what?" Veronica had been tapped on the shoulder by a servant. The servant whispered something in Veronica's ear and Veronica nodded,

"I'm sorry to say this, but the rooms you are staying in had an accidental cave in when we were trying to fix it up before your arrival. My servant has told me though, you can all share one large room, that would be the ballroom. They already have your beds set up. My servants will escort you and your luggage to your rooms." Veronica told the group. Having said that, Veronica and Lucius entered the castle leaving them alone.

"Please follow us" one of the servants said.

They all entered the large castle and looked around wide eyed. The place was creepy as hell!

It was slowly decaying, with moss and cracks on the high ceiling and dust and cobwebs on the lower walls. It made them wonder what the servants did all day long.

"Is it safe for people to live here with how much it's decaying? I mean, a room caved in! That can't be safe!" said Rouge.

"On the contrary miss, the castle is quite safe. The accident with your rooms was from improper construction. You see, we were attempting to restore your room. We are one hundred percent sure you will be safe in the ballroom." replied the servant.

"We all have to share a room though! That's not usually done in the U.S in case you didn't know." said Shadow.

"We are sorry, but it is all we could do." replied the servant.

Everybody had uncomfortable looks on their faces except Shadow (of course) and Knuckles who seemed to think it wasn't going to be that bad.

After walking through several twisting corridors, they finally came to a pair of large doors with stained glass windows at the top area. The servants opened the doors and set the luggage against a wall.

The group walked in and stared in awe.

The ballroom was huge, stained glass windows, old fashioned furniture, and a grand piano were all within the glorious room. There were several bunk beds set out for the group to sleep in.

The servants left quietly and left the group in the room alone.

The boys all took beds on one side of the room and the girls on the other. Amy was on the top of a bunk with Cream below her. Rouge was alone on a bunk at the bottom. Knuckles and Shadow were fighting over a top bunk while Sonic took the top of another bed and Tails called bottom.

"Why should you get top bunk?" said Shadow.

"Because I was here first!" replied Knuckles.

"Your point?" said Shadow.

"I don't need a point! Move your ass!" yelled Knuckles shoving Shadow off the top bunk.

Shadow attacked Knuckles back, and soon Knuckles and Shadow where in a huge brawl. Each one was biting, scratching, tearing skin, and dive bombing each other.

The fight went on for a while until it was interrupted by the only one that seemed to care.

"Quit fighting and just flip a fricken coin!" yelled Tails.

Knuckles and \shadow reluctantly stopped fighting and flipped a dime.

"Heads!" said Knuckles.

"Tails!" said Shadow.

The coin landed on the ground.

"I win, in your face!" said Knuckles as he climbed onto the top bunk.

Shadow got on the bottom bunk with a death glare aimed towards Knuckles.

Rouge rolled her eyes and pulled a flashlight out from her bag.

Amy was looking around nervously and clutched her own flashlight tightly.

"What was that thing in the woods? It sounded…………..weird." whispered Amy.

Rouge glared at Knuckles and then stared at a wall.

"Knuckles decided to scare the crap out of me on purpose."

"Bullshit, I didn't do anything!" yelled Knuckles.

"Oh yeah, sure! Who else would come up to me and pull down my shirt! You were the closest to me!" yelled Rouge.

"I'm not a pervert like you think!" yelled Knuckles.

"Whatever." mumbled Rouge.

**(A/N You like it? I made this one kinda long. Ewwwwwwww, Knux is a perv! Nah probably not. I'm thinking about it. I had huge writers block, make it stop! I kno this is out of the subject, but have you seen the Potter Puppet Pals? Bother bother! I'll try to do the next chapter quickly.)**


	4. Adventures of Night

**(A/N Sorry about the wait, and the cussing in the last chapter, thnx for reviewing, and sorry it took so long. I'm not good with scary stories so Rouge's was a bit difficult to think of, it still sucks though. Have fun berating me some more!)**

Sonic picked up his flashlight and walked up to a lighted torch. He used the torch to light the other torches and went to go sit on his bed.

"So everybody, how about a ghost story?" said Sonic.

Everyone looked around nervously expecting somebody to raise their hand or volunteer, but nobody did.

Sonic sighed and looked around again. This time, Rouge had her hand up in the air with a reluctant look on her face.

"Ok Rouge, give us what you've got." said Sonic.

story-

"Well, it was from when I was really little, and a new family moving in next door. Me and parents went over there to invite them and to see the house. We were walking around and I saw this little boy. He told me to follow him, so I did. I followed him into a room and he told me to go through the door next to the picture. There was an old black and white picture of a family, but no door. I told the boy there was no door there, and he told me to look again. When I looked back at the picture, there was a door next to it. I went through the door and he followed me. When I walked in, I was in an old fashioned oom that didn't look like it had been touched for years. I asked the boy where we were, but he didn't answer. I looked around for him, and being at that age, I was scared to shit. I finally saw a trap door an the floor beneath me. I opened it up and saw a rope tied to the handle. The rope had a person connected to it, a hanged person. I screamed and fainted." Rouge paused.

"Then what happened, were you left there?" asked Tails.

"No……..it's just that, when I woke up, the neighbors weren't moving in until tomorrow. The neighbors did move in the next day, but when we went over there, I kept on begging my mom to follow me to the room next to the picture. After hours of me begging my parents agreed to go. I went into the room and showed them the door. When we went through the door, the same trap door was there, and when my parents opened it, the body was still there." Rouge shivered.

"Wow, that's creepy." whispered Cream.

"But this is the creepy part, the people were getting rid of the picture next to the door, and when I looked at it, the boy I followed was on there and they guy that was hanged on the trap door was his brother, I think." said Rouge.

story end-

"Did you make that up?" asked Knuckles.

"Nope, it really did happen! I was little then, but I know it was true!" replied Rouge.

Knuckles rolled his eyes and leaned back against his pillow with one of those "This is so stupid its funny" looks on his face.

"That was cool, anybody else have one?" said Sonic looking around.

"No Sonic! I'm gonna have nightmares!" yelled Tails.

"Give us a break, we are all exhausted from that long walk!" said Knuckles.

"Yeah, I'm tired, I'm going to sleep." said Cream.

"Ok, we can tell more tomorrow night." said Sonic.

Tails groaned loudly.

Everybody pulled the covers over their heads except for two, Rouge and Knuckles.

Rouge couldn't help but think about the castle, she kept on picking up weird noises with her highly sensitive noises. She tossed and turned around for a long time.

Knuckles was just thinking about that story Rouge told, was it true or not? He noticed Rouge hadn't fallen asleep yet either, Knuckles was really tired, but he couldn't get the idea out of his head, it sounded so possible, yet improbable! What were the chances of that really happening to Rouge? Knuckles suddenly heard something coming from the girls side of the room. Knuckles silently jumped out of bed and walked to the girl side, he saw something. It was walking towards the exit, Knuckles jumped at it, pinned its arms to the ground, and was surprised at what he heard next.

"Knuckles, what is your problem!" whispered a familiar voice.

"Rouge? What were you doing?" whispered Knuckles.

"I was going to explore the castle a bit, I couldn't sleep, now let me up!" she whispered back.

Knuckles freed her arms and watched Rouge get up.

"If you are gonna leave, I'm going with you." Knuckles said with his arms crossed.

"Why, so you can pull more perverted moves on me?" she snapped.

"No! So you don't kill yourself in this dead decaying place." he replied.

Rouge shrugged and clicked on her flashlight.

"Come if you want, but if someone pulls down my shirt one more time, you are SO in for it." she whispered harshly.

Knuckles followed Rouge through the hallways, remembering the way they came to avoid being lost.

There were so many doors in the place, it seemed insane! They found a door leading to an old cellar they didn't dare go into, they found an old kitchen that obviously wasn't used anymore seeing how there was a kettle sitting there that was covered with dust and cobwebs, they found a dining room that still had silver dishes laid out on the table, and much more.

What really interested them though, was a purple door with stars and an inscription on it that was impossible to figure out. Rouge and Knuckles opened the door to reveal a huge library. It was beyond amazing, with more books than you could read in a lifetime, books on every subject in the world, it was humongous!

There were elegant tables with squashy armchairs scattered throughout the library and several ladders to get to the different floors. The ladders were probably used instead of stairs because stairs would take up too much room.

"This place is…….amazing!" said Rouge.

"Yeah, and creepy too. I don't like it, lets go." said Knuckles turning away from the beautiful library.

"Wait, what if……….what if we could find out more!" said Rouge biting her lip.

"More? About what?" replied Knuckles.

"This place, its so weird! We could learn everything there is to know about this place!" said Rouge. Rouge flew up to a level of shelves and looked at some titles curiously.

"Rouge, we can come back tomorrow, we can't read right now, it's too dark." said Knuckles.

"Wait!" yelled Rouge.

Something had caught her eye. It was a map stuffed inside a book she had been flipping through.

"Omigosh, this is a map of the entire place!" exclaimed Rouge.

"Great, we can use it to get back, can we go now?" Knuckles growled.

"Fine, but we are coming back tomorrow!" she replied.

"What do you mean we?" said Knuckles.

Rouge soared down in front of Knuckles.

"I need your help looking through this place, I don't want anybody else learning about it! Tails will be all over it with how much of a bookworm he is!" Rouge said jabbing Knuckles in the chest.

"Fine, I'll go, like there is much else to do around here." he grumbled.

Rouge read the ,map over carefully and soon directed them back to the ballroom.

"Thanks for coming with me." said Rouge.

Knuckles grumbled and felt Rouge's hand on his cheek. It slowly slipped away as Rouge walked towards her bed.

Knuckles, now blushing slightly, went to bed himself and pulled the cover over his head. He last thing he thought before he fell asleep was "Do I really like her?"

Knuckles then drifted off to sleep, without nightmares. They were though filled with dreams.

**(A/N Hope you liked it, sorry it was short, but writers block once again. I will try my best to write a long chapter for the next one. Please review so I can get an idea of how to do the next chapter.)**


	5. Of nightmares, plans, and other crap

**(A/N Chapter six, yay! Huge writers block again, BUT I FOUND THE CURE! Well, for this kind of fanfic. I got a ton of new ideas from playing Sonic Adventure 2. Tell me if the scary stories I make suck and if you have any scary stories that you would let me submit in the story, e-mail me the story at Sango48182aoldotcom. Thanks for the reviews!)**

It was late at night; everybody was tossing and turning in bed. They all had one thing running through their heads, nightmares.

-Tails' nightmare

Tails was walking down a cheerful forest trail; it was bright and sunny outside. Tails looked around at the scene before him with joy on his face. Just as he was about to skip along the path, a storm blew in rather quickly. Tails was sopping wet within minutes and needed to find somewhere nice and dry.

Tails noticed a house farther up the trail.

"That's weird, I never noticed that there before." said Tails.

He began running towards the house, now practically blinded from the heavy rain.

He approached the house and knocked on the door………..no answer. He knocked again………no answer. This time Tails banged on the door with his fists and ended up knocking down the door.

"Uh-oh, now I have to go in and apologize!" groaned Tails.

Tails trudged into the house, it was pretty empty. There wasn't even a chair or small table in sight, let alone a person.

Tails slowly walked up the creaky stairs and through an odd smelling hallway. A door down the hallway suddenly shut itself with a bang. Tails went towards that door so he could find the owner, apologize, and get out of here.

Tails opened the door and looked around; this room was empty too from the looks of it. Tails began to walk around the room and noticed a black and white picture of a family, next to it was a door.

Tails walked up to the door and slowly opened it. It led to a dusty and moldy room with no windows and a trap door. Out of curiosity, Tails opened the trap door and looked down. There was someone hanged by the handle of the trap door. Tails ran out of the room screaming and shut the door ferociously behind him. Tails leaned against the door panting and noticed the black and white picture, it seemed….different.

Tails looked at it closer and saw that all the people in the picture had fangs.

Tails backed away from the picture slowly, he was about to leave the room, when the door disappeared.

Five seconds later, the people in the picture burst out, sending shattered glass everywhere.

Ballroom-

Tails woke up and bolted up in his bed, screaming. He had a cold sweat and was panting. Everybody was still asleep and didn't seem at all disturbed by Tails' scream.

Tails pulled the covers over his head, now afraid something was going to jump out at him any moment. He couldn't fall asleep though, whenever he closed his eyes, he saw the fanged members of the family portrait.

When he finally fell asleep, he kept on having the same dream over and over again, every time he dreamt of the house, it seemed more threatening and dangerous

He dreamt the dream over about six times until morning came and light streamed through the stained glass windows.

Everybody got up and was asking Tails why he seemed so disturbed. Tails wouldn't answer.

As everybody was getting ready brushing their teeth and pulling on some fresh clothes under their covers (excluding the boys ), the servants they ha seen the day before came in and announced when everybody was ready, they would lead them off to the dining room where they would eat breakfast.

Everybody got ready in a hurry eager to see more of the castle, not counting Shadow who just sat in the corner staring at the floor.

When everybody was ready, the servants led them through the numerous hallways once again to the dining room Rouge and Knuckles had seen that night.

Lucius and Veronica were sitting at the end of the table, which was laden with sausages, eggs, bacon, cereal, and every kind of breakfast food you could imagine.

Everybody sat down, once again girls on one side boys on the other.

When everybody was settled in and began eating, the servants were rushing around tidying up the dining room removing cobwebs from pottery and dusting off paintings which looked like they hadn't been cleaned for years!

When everybody was done eating, Lucius and Veronica stood up and received everyone's attention.

"We would like to give you a quick summary of the things we are going to do while you are staying here. We shall start with today. Today you will be free to wander the house and explore. We have a guest arriving today; he is in fact a good friend of ours and has been for many years. We hope you show him respect.

Tomorrow we have another guest arriving who was the runner-up of the contests you all won, she will be invited to the castle, but only for this week. You will be staying for the entire month.

This weekend is the annual bonfire nights which we hold every weekend. On bonfire nights, we tell stories around a large bonfire in the courtyard, and I must say Veronica is an excellent storyteller. You will very much enjoy hearing what she has to say." Lucius announced. He looked over to Veronica who continued on.

"The next week is when our runner-up will leave the castle, but you will all be staying. It is also the week in which we will show you the path to our lake which you are allowed to visit anytime after we show it to you. We do ask though that you don't try to go there until we show you the way. We have not cleaned out the lake of anything that might harm you like glass or tin foil." Veronica looked over to Lucius who was speaking again.

"On the third week, we will have a small festival at our castle. The festival will include a grand feast, a race (Shadow and Sonic prick up their ears), and a treasure hunt (Rouge and Knuckles look at each other for a second)." Lucius looked to Veronica who was now speaking.

"On the final week, we shall hold our annual grand ball in which we invite several of our friends and we hold a ball at or castle. You may ask someone to go to the ball with you." Lucius and Veronica grinned.

"Well now that that is settled, Lucius and I have some things to attend to. Please enjoy yourself while you are here. Our friend will be arriving this afternoon. He is staying with us until winter when he shall return home to his family." said Veronica.

With that Lucius and Veronica left the room leaving eve5rybody else to look around exchanging curious looks.

Finally, to break the silence, Sonic stood up and said "Well we shouldn't waste our time here, I'm going to explore this place a bit, anybody want to come with?"

Tails walked up to Sonic along with Cream.

"Anybody else?" said Sonic.

Knuckles moved uncomfortably in his chair remembering his agreement with Rouge to go back to the library. Amy walked up to Sonic eagerly and looked around to see if anybody else was coming.

Nobody else moved. Sonic shrugged his shoulders and walked out of the dining room with Amy, Cream, and Tails close behind.

Shadow walked slowly out of the room looking back at Rouge and Knuckles before he went out of the room.

Rouge looked over to Knuckles when Shadows footsteps disappeared and said "Let's go."

Rouge got up and walked towards the door with Knuckles following her reluctantly.

Rouge pulled the map out of her pocket and looked it over carefully before setting off in the direction of the library.

They passed a few servants along the way, but they all disappeared as Rouge and Knuckles approached the library. They once again went through the purple doors into the huge library. Knuckles stood with his arms crossed looking around.

"Well what are you waiting for, get reading! Are you illiterate or what?" said Rouge.

"I'm very literate for your information." said Knuckles walking up to a bookshelf and looking at a few titles hopefully as if one would jump out at him titled "Everything You Need to Know About Dracula's castle", fat chance.

Knuckles poured over different books reading the text carefully while Rouge randomly took books off of the shelves and flipped through the pages.

A couple of hours later, Knuckles was sitting at a table piled high with books and Rouge was at the very top of the library flipping through another book.

Knuckles suddenly heard someone close the door. He got up to look, but couldn't see through all the books he had been looking through. He heard Rouge shriek and automatically was racing up to the top of the library to see what was wrong.

When he reached the top, there was a bat, like Rouge, standing there. He had black fur and was wearing black jeans and a black v-neck shirt. His hair was tied up in a short ponytail and there was a bite mark on his ear giving him a wild look.

Rouge was panting behind him and seemed to have been surprised by his arrival.

"Why, hello. You must be another contestant. My name is Drake."

**(A/N Ok, I'm sorry, but I can't do a Rouge Shadow relationship, I just don't see how they could like each other! But I do want to set some sparks up about Rouge. I will try to put Kyra in the next chapter, she does seem like a good character, and I hope I toned down the swearing and pervertedness. Hope you liked it! Please review, I need more opinions before I start chapter six.)**


	6. Time for Some Fireworks

**(A/N Ok, this is the REAL chapter six to fix a mistake in my last chapter. Once again, thanks for reviewing, I love you all kidding. Thank you for the compliments, hope the story doesn't suck, and why aren't you berating me! You know its fun to correct all my mistakes! Come on, do it!)**

Drake held out his hand which was covered by a black glove. Knuckles reluctantly shook it.

Knuckles peered around Drake curiously at Rouge.

"What happened to Rouge?" he asked.

"Afraid I gave her a bit of a scare when I sneaked up behind her."

Rouge put the book she was flipping through back on the shelf and walked up to Drake.

"I'm Rouge, better known as the treasure hunter Rouge. Nice to meet you."

"Flattered." Drake replied smoothly seizing Rouge's hand and quickly pecking it.

Knuckles rolled his eyes.

"Sorry if I scared you earlier. My name is Drake. Are you with this kind gentleman?" he asked.

"No, I'm with a friend of mine." she replied.

"Really, well, it seems you are trying to find out a thing or two about the castle. I could give you the grand tour, if you would like?" he said in an even smoother voice.

"I'd love to." she replied.

Drake took Rouge's hand and led her out of the room telling her details about the library as they went through the door.

Knuckles left a while after them once he was done thinking.

"Stupid suck-up bat." he mumbled.

"You mean Rouge?" said a voice behind him.

Knuckles spun around to see Sonic behind him.

"No, that Drake guy" he replied.

"Jealous, eh?" he replied.

"What's that supposed to mean" growled Knuckles.

"You like her don't you?" he said leaning against the wall.

"No, what gave you that idea?" he replied sharply.

"It's obvious isn't it? What's even more obvious is that Drake likes her too." he said.

Knuckles' face went slightly pale. "He does?"

"So you do care huh? Yeah, he's been walking with her all around the castle."

Knuckles went even paler.

"He has?"

"Yup, as a matter of fact, here he comes now!" said Sonic speeding out of sight.

Knuckles panicked and jumped behind a tapestry with a secret passage behind it.

Rouge walked down the hall with Drake holding her hand. Knuckles growled as he watched from behind the tapestry.

"Rouge, you really are an amazing women." Knuckles heard Drake say.

"You really think so?" Rouge replied.

"Yes, I do. You are smart, funny, courteous, and above all remarkably beautiful." he replied.

Rouge blushed and Knuckles began to grind his teeth angrily.

"Rouge, would you consider us as, oh what is that American term? Girlfriend and boyfriend?" said Drake.

"Tch, yeah right!" whispered Knuckles under his breath.

"Yeah, I……..I guess I would." replied Rouge.

Knuckles was stunned. He didn't move until after Drake and Rouge were out of sight. He couldn't believe it. Rouge, like that creep? That was improbable! But, still possible. Just like Rouge's story. Knuckles slumped against the wall with his hand on his head. How could he be such an idiot? He was a lonely loser born to do nothing but guard a stupid emerald. How could Rouge ever like him, the fighting freak?

Knuckles spent the rest of the day on his bed pretending to be sleeping. When he finally got up to go to dinner, Sonic noticed Knuckles and pulled him off to the side.

"What happened?" asked Sonic.

"I don't want to talk about it." replied Knuckles.

"Oh yes you do!" replied Sonic.

"Oh no I don't!" he mimicked.

"Come on Knuckles, something is giving you issues. You're too tough to be looking miserable like this without something being up. Now I'm gonna sit here until you tell me what's up!" replied Sonic sharply.

"Well what if I don't want to talk about it?" Knuckles replied.

"Then you are gonna sit here forever." replied Sonic.

Knuckles sighed and looked away.

"Rouge is dating that Drake guy" he mumbled.

"Ouch! Well, I know one thing that this is helping you out with!" said Sonic.

"Really? What!" replied Knuckles harshly?

"You can finally admit to yourself that you like Rouge!" he said smiling slyly.

Knuckles was blushing deep red and growling with his teeth bared.

"Why you little!" he yelled as he lunged at Sonic.

Sonic leapt out of the way and jumped on top of a tall statue.

"Touchy, eh?" said Sonic.

"No, just in the mood to kill something!" yelled Knuckles.

"Than try this spider over here, the maids missed it" said Sonic pointing at a spider web.

Knuckles lunged at Sonic again but this time managed to pin him to the ground.

"Why fight me Knuckles? Take out your anger on somebody more annoying. Like Amy for instance!" he said nervously.

Knuckles looked up.

"Somebody is coming!" he whispered.

Knuckles dragged Sonic behind a tapestry and signaled for him to be quiet.

Rouge and Drake were walking down the hallway, Drake holding Rouge close to him.

"Come Rouge, we don't want anybody to see us, not yet at least." said Drake as they walked down the hallway.

"Why do we need to keep it a secret?" replied Rouge.

"I just want to keep it secret for a while, I'm waiting for the right moment that's all." he replied smiling at Rouge.

Rouge leaned in to kiss Drake. Knuckles was grinding his fist into the floor.

"Quick, we most go before everyone wonders where we are." said Drake as they rushed towards the dining room.

Sonic looked over to Knuckles.

"Knuckles?"

"WHAT?" he growled.

"You are putting a hole in the ground." he said pointing at the hole Knuckles made grinding the floor with his fist.

Knuckles stopped grinding the floor and left the tapestry passageway.

Sonic walked out and yelled to Knuckles "The dining room is the other way!" he yelled.

"I'm not hungry!" he yelled back.

Sonic shrugged his shoulders.

Everybody was asking each other where Knuckles was, except for Rouge and Drake. Sonic just silently ate his dinner. Nobody noticed how Rouge and Drake where smiling at each other all the time or how Sonic hadn't said a word the entire meal. Not even how Lucius and Veronica were missing during dinner.

When dinner was over and everybody had eaten their fill, the contest winners all left for the ballroom.

Drake was talking to Rouge, but nobody could hear what they were saying.

Rouge finally walked towards the ballroom and was the last one to go in. Knuckles was lying on the top bunk staring at the ceiling. Everybody could tell he was in a bad mood and didn't dare talk to him.

As soon as Rouge walked in, Sonic turned on his flashlight and looked around.

"So, anybody have any good ghost stories?" he asked.

This time Cream shot her hand into the air.

"Ok Cream, tell it like it is."

"Well, it was a nightmare I had last night………"

story-

Cream was walking down a country lane on a bright sunny morning. She saw a house up ahead, it looked nice and cheery. Cream walked up to it and decided to go inside. When she entered she heard the door shut abruptly behind her.

Cream went up the stairs and saw a pretty room with a table in the middle. She went up to the table and saw it had tea served on it.

Cream took a teacup and sipped from it. She noticed a black and white picture on the wall, of a family. They looked so happy together. Next to a picture was a boy who Cream hadn't noticed there before.

"Hello, what is your name?" she said politely.

The boy just looked at her.

"Do you live here?" she asked.

The boy looked at her some more.

It must have been her imagination, but after she blinked, the boy was a foot away from her.

"Ummmmm, would you like some tea?" she said holding out a cup of tea with a shaking hand.

The boy shook his head no and smiled revealing sharp, pointed teeth.

Cream nervously took a sip of tea, but when she took a sip, she choked. The tea had a long, thick, black hair in it, covered with blood.

story end-

"Ewwwww, that's so gross!" said Amy wincing.

"Yeah, I had a dream about that black and white picture too last night." said Tails.

"Weird……….anyways, who has another story?"

"Oh, I do I do!" said Amy hand stretched high in the air.

"Okay Amy." said Sonic.

Story-

Amy, a beautiful pink hedgehog was eating a romantic dinner with her husband Sonic!"

interruption-

"Amy!" yelled Sonic.

"What?" she shrugged.

"Is this a scary story or a daydream?" he said.

"You never said what kind of story it had to be." she said crossing her arms.

Sonic hit his forehead with his hand.

"It's supposed to be a SCARY story. That was scary too, but I'm talking ghost here alright? Not marriage." said Sonic.

Tails was snickering into his pillow attempting to stifle the laughs.

"Fine, then I won't tell my story." she said angrily.

"OOOOOOOOOkay then, anybody have a REAL ghost story?"

Nobody raised their hands.

"Ok then, guess its time to hit the sack." said Sonic.

Everybody pulled their covers over their heads, except Knuckles who was still staring at the ceiling.

**(A/N Awwwwwwwww, poor Knuckles. I told you I would set up sparks. I will try to finish up the next chapter quickly now that my writers block is gone. Please review and send me scary story ideas cuz mine SUCK!)**


	7. The Runner Up

**(A/N Hello, me again. Chapter seven, YAY! I'm going to be changing the point of view now. I was concentrating too much on what was going on with Knuckles, Rouge, and Drake. I'll be focusing on three characters including a new one. I would like to say Kyra does not belong to me; she belongs to Kyra the Hedgehog. Enjoy the story!)**

It was late at night and everybody was still sleeping. There was a breeze out in the courtyard that had traveled through the entire castle extinguishing every single torch so everybody was left in pitch black darkness.

Nightmares where still dancing around in people's heads.

-Amy's Nightmare-

Amy was sitting on a couch watching TV, just flipping with one leg crossed over the other.

"There's nothing on!" she groaned as she turned off the TV.

Amy stood up and walked over to the kitchen of her apartment to get a glass of water. Just as she finished drinking it, the power went out.

"Oh no, a blackout!" she cried.

Amy felt around for a flashlight and found one in a drawer. She flicked it on and looked around. The door to her bedroom shut abruptly by itself.

Amy walked up to the door shivering like crazy. She turned the knob and opened up the door to see a dark figure kneeling on her bed. When Amy shined the light on her bed, she recognized the figure as Sonic.

"Oh, Sonic! What are you doing here?" she said in a flirty kind of way.

"Come Amy……..come sit with me….." whispered Sonic.

Amy walked over to the bed and sat next to Sonic. Sonic put his arm around Amy's shoulder and Amy looked up at him. Before she knew it, sonic was kissing her hand and moving up her arm until he reached her neck. Amy felt a sharp tinge in her neck.

She then realized that it wasn't Sonic. It was a vampire!

ballroom-

Amy woke with a start yelling "Sonic!" out loud waking up everybody in the room.

Everybody woke up and somebody turned on a flashlight, it was Tails who obviously had his under his pillow because he pulled it out so fast.

"What's wrong Amy?" asked Tails wearily.

"Yeah" said Sonic yawning. "What was the deal with my name?"

Amy looked around.

"Sonic smile!" said Amy.

Sonic raised an eyebrow.

"Say what?"

"I said smile, I want to see something." replied Amy.

Sonic looked to Tails who shrugged.

"Oooooooookay then." said Sonic.

He smiled revealing all of his teeth.

"Whew, no fangs!" she said with relief.

"Do we really want to know?" asked Knuckles.

"Did you have a nightmare Amy?" asked Cream.

"Never mind, I just had a bad dream that's all." replied Amy.

"Okay, can we all go to sleep now?" asked Knuckles.

"Well nobody is telling you not to." said Amy firmly.

Knuckles shrugged and pulled the covers over his head once again.

Tails looked around the ballroom.

"That's weird….." said Tails.

"What's weird?" replied Sonic as everybody else went back to sleep.

"Rouge is out of bed. Do you know where she went?" asked Tails.

"Nope, I haven't seen her much since dinner." replied Sonic.

Tails stared at the ceiling hard, thinking deeply.

"Something up Tails?" asked Sonic.

Tails didn't answer.

"Don't tell me you have a thing for Rouge too!" whispered Sonic.

"Ew, NO! Do you?" whispered Tails.

"No, its……..somebody else." he replied flickering his eyes towards Knuckles for a second.

Tails shrugged his shoulders and yawned.

"I'm going to sleep, night ,Sonic."

"Night, Tails."

The next morning everybody woke up without any problems except for Amy, who had dark circles under her eyes and spent ten minutes brushing the same part of her hair without noticing.

When everybody went down to breakfast, Lucius and Veronica weren't there.

This time, everybody noticed.

"They weren't here at dinner yesterday either." said Tails.

"They weren't where they? I never noticed because I was too busy wondering where Knuckles went." said Cream.

"I don't think anybody but Tails noticed." said Sonic.

"I noticed." said Shadow.

Everybody looked at Shadow, he had said something!

"You did too, Shadow?" said Tails.

"Yeah, I also noticed a few other things about them too. Their servants never know where they are; they refuse to eat when we are around. Have you ever notice how they don't eat during dinner they just talk to each other in low voices. You can't even hear what they say. That Drake guy is weird too. He mysteriously disappears along with Rouge! There is something definitely weird going on here. The problem is that nobody else wants to stop and leave their everyday dreamlands to notice what's going on here." said Shadow.

Everybody was looking down at their food dwelling on what Shadow just said.

"So, what is going on here?" asked Knuckles.

Shadow looked at the floor and closed his eyes.

"I don't know yet. Right now, it's just one big mystery."

Tails was looking at Shadow as if he was about to tell them what to do, but Shadow remained silent.

"Ok then, I have a plan, but we-" Tails began. He was interrupted by the arrival of Lucius and Veronica.

They were being followed by a dark gray hedgehog. Her flaming red eyes looked around at everybody at the table politely; one of her eyes were covered by a strip of brown hair. She was wearing a white tank top with a red skirt and gray boots.

"Everybody, I would like you to meet the runner up in our contest, Miss Kyra. She will be staying with you in the castle, but after our second bonfire weekend, she will have to leave." said Lucius.

"But we do hope she enjoys her stay here while she can." added Veronica.

A servant put an extra chair up to the table and Kyra took a seat in it. She gave a polite smile and said "Hi everybody."

Everybody smiled and said hi. Tails looked around; he couldn't say anything in front of Lucius and Veronica. Tails suddenly got an idea. He pulled a pencil from behind his ear and wrote on his napkin to meet him in the cellar and to pass the note to everybody except Lucius, Veronica, or Drake. He didn't know why he should put down Drake since he wasn't there, but he decided that it was good for everybody to know who not to tell.

After dinner, everybody was walking towards the cellar area, including Kyra who had no idea what was going on.

When they got inside, they checked to make sure the coast was clear before they started explaining everything to Kyra.

When they were done explaining everything weird that was going on, Kyra looked at Shadow, then the floor.

"Well then, I guess I'm gonna help you guys." she said.

"Thanks a lot, we need all the help we can get!" said Sonic giving Kyra a thumbs up.

Tails was inspecting the entire place looking for any weak points. He was hoping there weren't any places where people could spy on them in the area.

"So Kyra, tell us about yourself." said Sonic.

Kyra sat down on a crate.

"Well, there isn't much to say. I don't like that Eggman weirdo I always hear about most of you fighting. I'm not bad at fighting either, I'm pretty good actually."

"How good?" asked Knuckles.

"Let's just say you don't want to mess with me." she replied.

Shadow looked at the door and walked to look outside.

"Someone's coming…….." he whispered.

"Who?" they all said in unison.

"Rouge and Drake." he answered.

Knuckles ran up to the door and looked outside.

**(A/N I hope you liked the chapter, I also hope Kyra wasn't too out of character even though she didn't say much. If she was, COMPLAIN! Thanks for the requests and please review some more. You all have been so nice this far into the story, so thanks.)**


	8. Cellars and Lakes

**(A/N Me again, I'm sorry if I have been rushing the story a bit, but I just got an awesome idea for a Teen Titans fanfic, and I don't want to start it until I finish this story. Tell me if I'm rushing and I'll try to slow down. Enjoy the story**!)

Rouge and Drake were walking down the hallway slowly, Drake talking to Rouge in a low voice and Rouge was looking at the floor.

When Drake finished talking Rouge looked up and said "I don't know, I don't think it would be that safe. My friends-"

"What friends? That weird black hedgehog? He hasn't said a word since that little fight over top bunk in the ballroom. That weird echidna? He was spying on us the other day before dinner. I'm sorry Rouge, but none of these people are your friends." said Drake.

"Knuckles was spying? I don't believe it!" cried Rouge.

Shadow looked over to Knuckles who had his teeth clenched tightly together.

"Believe it Rouge, he has no respect for your privacy." said Drake.

Tails knew that this was a lie and now realized what Sonic meant last night by "somebody else".

Sonic was holding Knuckles back from running out there and beating the crap out of Drake.

Kyra was inching into a safe hiding spot, sensing danger.

Sonic nearly tripped trying to pull Knuckles away from the door and let out a silent "whoa!"

Drake's gaze was drawn towards the cellar door which had been silently closed before Drake had noticed it. Drake walked towards the door.

"He's coming, hide!" whispered Tails.

Knuckles ran to go hide in a hole in the wall boarded up about halfway so he could climb over the top and duck out of sight.

Shadow speeded behind a shelf soundlessly followed by sonic who ducked behind some crates.

Tails and Cream flew up to hide on the wooden support beams.

Amy was hidden inside an empty crate and Kyra had disappeared earlier before.

Drake walked into the cellar and was scanning the room with piercing eyes.

Rouge walked in with Drake and recognized the place as the cellar she had seen with Knuckles the other night. Speaking of Knuckles, Rouge thought she had seen something move, but ignored it. It was probably just a rat anyways.

"Come Rouge, let us go to the lake." said Drake.

"But, we could get in trouble. And-"

"Rouge look at me, look at my eyes. Would I let something bad happen to you?"

Rouges eyes glazed up a bit and she tonelessly answered "No, you wouldn't, Drake."

"That's right, now come with me Rouge." said Drake leading Rouge out of the cellar.

When they left, shadow and Sonic sped from their hiding spots to check that the coast was clear before signaling for everybody to come out. Knuckles jumped from behind the boards fuming with anger.

Tails and Cream softly landed on the ground and Kyra appeared from behind a shelf. Amy jumped out of the box breathing as though she had held her breath the entire time she was in that box.

Tails looked at Knuckles nervously.

"Knuckles……" he whispered.

"What?" he snapped back.

Tails retracted a bit and mumbled "Nothing."

Everybody stared at Knuckles as he stomped towards the door.

"Where are you going………..Knuckles?" asked Sonic.

"Down to the lake." he replied.

"But we aren't supposed to-" started Cream.

"I DON'T CARE!" yelled Knuckles.

Cream stumbled as she backed up and nearly fell into Tails who quickly stopped her from falling.  
Tails glared at Knuckles as he walked out of the room.

"What happened to him?" asked Kyra.

Nobody answered. They all were too stunned to speak.

"Well then………I say we go see where Knuckles is going. If he goes down to the lake and gets caught, he'll get kicked out." said Sonic.

"That's a brilliant idea Sonic!" squealed Amy as she ran to Sonics side.

Everybody else just followed Sonic outside. It was a cloudy day and it was pretty windy out.

They noticed Knuckles going down a forest trail, not like the one they used to get to the castle, but a different (and more lighted) one. Everybody followed him with worried looks on their faces.

Sonic turned around causing everybody to stop and whispered "We should split up; it'll be easier to not get caught if we are in smaller groups. If one small group gets caught, at least not everybody will get caught."

Everybody nodded their heads.

Tails and Cream went off in the direction of the boathouse. Kyra and Shadow went into the woods along the lakeside and Sonic reluctantly followed Amy down the side opposite of Shadow and Kyra.

Inside the boathouse, Tails and Cream noticed Drake and Rouge getting into a boat. Tails motioned for Cream to follow him and hid inside a huge bag that smelled strongly of fish.

"What are you supposed to be showing me, Drake?" asked Rouge.

"You'll see, I'm sure you'll enjoy it also." replied Drake.

"But, what if they see us out on the lake?" asked Rouge.

"Don't worry, I have it all planned out! If I see Lucius and Veronica coming I will hide you in this bag." said Drake dragging the bag onto the boat.

"By the weight of it, it seems like it's already filled with fish, you should be well hidden in here."

Added Drake.

Tails and Cream both looked at each other praying that Rouge wouldn't need to hide for any reason.

Sonic and Amy were creeping along the bank silently looking for any trace of Knuckles, but he was nowhere to be seen.

As they walked through the muddy sand, Amy turned to Sonic and said in her flirty voice "This place is so romantic."

Sonic rolled his eyes and tried to ignore Amy who was now staring at him dreamily.

Sonic heard Amy yelp as she fell into a mud hole that was about her eye level.

She climbed out and spat mud out of her mouth as she wiped it off her dangerously short dress.

"So there are mud holes in this place too huh? We might want to be a bit more careful when we walk around." said Sonic trying his best not to laugh as Amy wiped mud out of her now very messy hair.

"You'd think they would at least put up a warning sign or something." said Amy emptying mud from her shoes.

"Maybe that's another reason why we aren't allowed at the lake yet. They have to put up precautions and stuff." said Sonic shrugging.

"I don't see why, they didn't take care to separate the boys from the girls when it comes to where we sleep." crabbed Amy.

Back in the woods, Kyra and Shadow were trudging through numerous fallen pine needles and dead branches.

Kyra looked in every direction, her flaming eyes trying their best to look around all the thick trees. She couldn't even find the shoreline.

"Hey Shadow, do you have any idea where we are?" asked Kyra calmly.

Shadow looked over his shoulder at Kyra without stopping and said "See the sun overhead? It's not afternoon yet, so the sun is in the east right now. We went towards the sun when we entered, but then we turned and are going south. So all we have to do to get out of here is go north and turn at a tree I marked before we turned." replied Shadow.

Kyra looked at the sun, he was right.

"Do you have a compass hidden in those spikes?" asked Kyra.

Shadow just looked over his shoulder again at Kyra.

As they walked on, Shadow would periodically check to make sure Kyra was still following him.

Sonic and Amy were still walking along the lake when they noticed something red in the water, it was Knuckles. It looked like Knuckles had brought his air necklace with him or else they would've noticed him whenever he came up for breath.

As they watched, Amy fell into another mud pit. Only this time, she disappeared altogether!

**( A/N Bada badum! Before any of you say anything, I do NOT think that Amy and Sonic should get together. I would've killed Amy by now if it weren't for the fact my frantic friend (who is an Amy-Sonic fan) begged me on her knees not to. I plan to make the next chapter longer. Have fun berating me, once again!)**


	9. Of saving lives and other crap

**(A /N YAY! Chapter, um, which one is this? Oh yeah, nine, I hope. Anyways………………….GUESS WHAT! The Eldest is out. It's the sequel to my favorite book EVER! (Eragon). YAY! Back on topic now, this chapter sucks so have fun mercilessly berating me.)**

Tails and Cream sat as stiff as statues inside the fish bag not making a single noise as Drake rowed them across the lake. The couldn't tell where they were going, but they could hear the sound of running water getting louder and louder as they went on.

Neither Rouge or Drake made a noise since they entered the boat. Tails could tell Cream was trying her best not to get too scared, but by the look on her face, she wasn't far from her breaking point. Tails didn't see why. Drake couldn't do much to them, probably get mad or beat them up a bit at the worst.

After being in the boat for what seemed like hours, Tails and Cream felt the boat hit land. As soon as they had felt Drake and Rouge leave the boat and the sound of their footsteps disappeared, Cream and Tails got out of the bag and looked around. They were at some kind of cove with candles lighting the entrance.

Cream was trembling slightly, and Tails knew why she was scared now. This place was even more creepy than the castle. The cove was surrounded by murky water and dense fog. The candles cut through the fog like a knife through bread. Tails grabbed Cream's hand and they walked towards the candlelight into the cove.

When they entered the cove, the air was foul with the smell of rotting eggs. Candles lined the rocky walls and random papers were scattered across the floor. Tails picked up one and read it out loud in a soft whisper

_Another day in the cove. I still haven't taken the _ _boat back to the castle yet. I can't blow my _

_cover, even Lucius and Veronica don't know. I've been watching the winning contestants a lot lately. They seem like a pathetic bunch. They will all disappear just like the winners last year. _

Tails looked up.

"Last years winners? They've had a contest like this before?" said Tails.

Cream was silently wringing her hands looking around nervously. All of the sudden, one of her floppy ears perked up and her eyes grew wide.

"We have to go!" she whispered.

"But Cream, what about-"Tails started.

"Forget Rouge, we need to get out of here!" replied Cream.

They ran towards the exit of the cove and were just about to take of flying when they suddenly just froze. Tails tried to move, but he was stuck. It was like someone had just chained them up that way. All Tails could do was look around, his eyes pleading for help.

Drake walked out and stood in front of Cream and Tails.

"Well well, it seems we have two snoops on the scene. Did you think that you were being sneaky? Is that it?" Drake sneered.

Creams eyes grew wider than ever. Tails could tell she was ready to faint.

"Well then, I know what you saw. It hurts me to know that you also know. I just sometimes wish I could just erase these things from memory. Oh yes, that reminds me. I can!" Drake put a hand out towards Cream and she silently closed her eyes and fell to the ground fast asleep.

Tails tried to say "What did you do to her", but he couldn't talk. Drake put his hand out to Tails now. Tails could feel his eyes drooping. His arms felt heavy, and he fell to the ground sound asleep.

Sonic stood at the edge a deep mud hole, his arm inside searching for Amy who had just fell in. He couldn't find her. He couldn't even reach the bottom. He knew he had to do something, and quick. If he didn't, Amy would die! **(A/N Oooooooooooh, big loss there. -o)**

Sonic looked around frantically for a stick, a vine, and log, anything he could hand down to Amy to pull her out.

He looked around and saw the boathouse. It wasn't too far. He would find something there.

Sonic sped over to the boathouse and searched the place for a rope or safety line. He found a rope, but it was connected to an anchor, and he didn't have time to undo the knot.

Sonic grabbed the anchor and ran as fast as he could back to the mud hole. It took him more time to get there with the weight of the anchor added on, and Amy would be near suffocation soon. Sonic quickly caught the anchor on a tree and dived into the mud hole with a rope. He couldn't find Amy. The mud hole was really deep. He felt around and finally managed to grab hold of what was for sure, Amy's hand. He gripped the rope for dear life and pulled both him and Amy out of the hole.

Sonic put his ear to Amy's chest.

"She isn't breathing." he whispered. Sonic pumped her chest and nothing happened. He pumped it again, nothing. He finally pumped it again and Amy coughed up some mud and rolled over on her knees. Sonic stood up and sighed with relief.

"Oh Sonic, you saved me!" squealed Amy as she stood up and gave Sonic a rib cracking hug.

Just then, Shadow and Kyra appeared out of the woods.

"Having fun, how romantic." Shadow laughed coldly.

Kyra was stifling a laugh as best as she could.

Sonic pushed Amy away from him and wiped mud off of his face.

"Shut it Shadow, before I make you." Sonic snarled.

"Oooooh, tough one aren't you?" replied Shadow with another laugh.

"I'll make you eat those words Shadow!" yelled Sonic as he leaped towards Shadow**. (A/N Ooooooooo, how original.)**

Sonic was going straight towards Shadow until-

"Whoa!" Sonic cried as he was thrown back into the sand.

Kyra was standing in front of Shadow with her fist out showing that she had punched Sonic while he was in midair.

"What the-" Shadow began.

"Come on Shadow, lets head back to the castle." said Kyra walking towards the path to the castle. Shadow looked back at Sonic who was rubbing the back of his head and Amy who was throwing death glares at Kyra as if to say "How dare you hurt my precious Sonic!".

Shadow turn back towards Kyra and ran to catch up with her.

"We should go back Sonic, I need a bath." said Amy wiping mud off her dress."

"But we still haven't found Knuckles OR Rouge." protested Sonic.

"I'm sure they are both fine. Let's go!" said Amy running towards the path.

Sonic reluctantly followed.

Tails and Cream woke up to find themselves in the fish bag again. They didn't remember anything about the cove.

"What happened?" asked Cream.

"I don't know. One second we hit land and the next……." Tails looked around. The fish bag was filling with water, somebody had punctured a hole in the fish bag!

"Cream, we aren't just in the fish bag! Somebody threw us into the water! We have to get out before we drown!" he yelled.

Cream gave out a shriek of terror.

"We have to conserve our oxygen. Breath in small controlled breaths so we don't waste any." said Tails quietly.

Tails found the opening to the fish bag, it was closed tight, maybe even chained that way. They couldn't get out that way. Tails looked over to the hole, maybe he could stretch it out so they could fit through. Tails tried to stretch it out, but the bag was too tough, he tried or a couple of minutes, but only made it big enough to let in MORE water. The bag was filling up fast. Tails was scratching behind his ear trying to think when he felt it, the pencil he had behind his ear from breakfast that morning.

Tails pulled the pencil from behind his ear and turned to Cream. She had fainted.

Tails grabbed her hand and began puncturing more hole in the bag with the pencil. The lead had come out, but it was still working. He managed to break the space between the holes to make a big hole that he and Cream could fit through. He took a deep breath and swam towards the surface. The extra weight of Cream was making it hard to swim. He was nearly there. He wouldn't make it. Tails finally felt cold refreshing air sting his face.

Cream was still out though, Tails had to wake her up. He dragged her to the sand and began pumping her chest trying to get the water out, it wasn't working. He had to use CPR. Tails breathed air into Creams mouth and pumped her chest again. Nothing. He breathed more air into her mouth and pumped her chest again. This time, water spurted out of Cream's mouth and her eyes fluttered open.

"Tails?" Cream asked.

"Yeah?"

"Were you just kissing me?"

Tails blushed bright red.

**(YES! I finally finished the chapter. After redoing it over twice, I finished it. YAY! Anyways, Amy needs to die. Once again, my frantic friend who is an Amy Sonic freak was the one that made Amy survive this chapter. I REALLY want to kill her, but my friend would kill me if I did. Sorry this chapter took so long. I kept on getting ideas, but then they would just lead me to a dead end, so sorry if this chapter sucked. Thanks again for the rules. Oh and one more thing, DIE AMY! DIE! Have fun reviewing )**


	10. Dark stories and nightmares

**(WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Sorry, I had to do that. Anyways, chapter ten! WHOOT! I think I'll try to extend Kyras visit cuz she's a cool character. By the way, I was reading through all the reviews again for the heck of it, and saw that a lot of you spelled vampire wrong. One more thing, I guess I'm sorry for bashing on Amy like that, I'll try to avoid doing that anymore. I still hate her though, you just don't have to hear about it. And don't worry, I'm not killing Amy. Okay then, enjoy!)**

Everybody was safely back inside the castle sitting on their bunks. It had begun to storm outside and everybody was shivering under their covers.

Knuckles and Rouge were back, but neither of them would say anything.

As a matter of fact, nobody was saying anything. They were all listening intently for the sound of footsteps. Tonight was the first bonfire night, and everybody was eager to find out what it would be like.

Cream was drawing something on a piece of paper. Amy jumped down from her bunk to look at Creams drawing.

"Is that Cheese and Chocola?" asked Amy remembering the two chaos.

"Yes, I miss them a lot. I left them with a friend of mine, but I can't contact her from here because we are so far away. I'm so worried about them." sighed Cream.

"Come on Cream, what is the worse that can happen? They'll be fine. Anyways, that's a cute picture." she said in an attempt to cheer Cream up.

"Yeah, I guess I can just relax a bit. They'll be fine."

Just then, the sound of footsteps drew near the ballroom. Everybody's attention was drawn towards the door to the hallway. It opened slowly, and in walked the servants of Lucius and Veronica.

"We are very sorry, but tonight's bonfire will have to be canceled." said a servant girl. "We are sorry, but the rain is too heavy. If the rain is gone by tomorrow, we will have the bonfire then."

Without saying another word, they left the room.

"Awwww, I really wanted to hear some scary stories." said Tails.

"Don't worry Tails, I'm sure we can tell our own stories. How about it, anybody wanna try to freak us out?" asked Sonic.

"I've got a story!" cried Amy jumping up and down in her bunk.

"Is it a SCARY story?" asked Sonic.

"Yes it is I promise!" nodded Amy.

"Ok then Amy, tell us the story."

"Well, it started a bit like this…"

-story-

Amy was sitting on a bench in the middle of an empty park. She was looking around cheerfully admiring all the scenery. As she looked around, she noticed a forest path. She decided that she needed to stretch her legs, so she got up and walked down the path.

As she went down the path, everything became less lively. The grass slowly turned from luscious green, to dry brown. The leaves of the trees began to disappear and now cluttered the path. Amy decided she must not be on park land anymore and should turn back. But when Amy turned back, the path was gone and replaced by more dead trees.

Amy gulped loudly. "I-I-I must have wandered from the path. I'll probably figure out where I am once I get off of this path." Amy stuttered.

She followed the path, but didn't come to an exit. What was weirder was that according to Amy's watch, it should have been dark by now. Yet the eerie orange sun shone through the dead forest. Something suddenly caught Amy's eye.

Not far off the path was an old shack. "There might be someone there that could help me out of this place." thought Amy.

She rushed towards the house, but before she could, she suddenly stopped she thought she heard something, it got louder. Somewhere in the distance, there was a high voice chanting "Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary….". It kept getting louder, and louder, and louder. Soon, Amy was surrounded by the voice chanting "Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary..". Amy was looking around anxiously. She ran for the house.

She locked the door behind her, and the voices stopped. Amy leaned against the door with a sigh of relief.

Amy got up and looked around. There was a mattress on the floor next to a small table. On the other side of the room was a boarded up cabinet. Amy walked towards it and pulled off the rotting boards.

She slowly opened the cabinet doors. In it, was a mirror. In the mirror was a little dead girl who smiled and whispered "Bloody Mary.". Amy screamed loudly and then…….woke up.

-story end-

"Did you really dream that?" asked Tails who was hugging his pillow.

"Yeah, it was scary!" shivered Amy.

"Yeah, well I have something even scarier" said Knuckles with a grin.

-story-

A long time ago, a little girl used to live with her rich uncle by a lake. Every day, she would walk out to the pier and sit at the edge, looking at hr reflection in the water. The girl, had a stepbrother who loathed her more than anything in the world. He would always abuse her and taunt her, but the girl was afraid to tell her uncle.

One day, she was sitting by the dock, fiddling with a rope used to tie boats to the dock. Her stepbrother approached her from behind and grabbed the rope. He put it around her neck and in seconds, she was strangled to death and thrown into the deep, murky waters of the lake.

Well, years later, the girl's death became part of an urban legend. And there were two kids, a girl and her brother, going out to the lake to live with their rich uncle over the summer. When they told their friends, they all said "Did you know that their lake is haunted, by this girl who was murdered by her own brother? Her body is supposed to be down there at the bottom of the lake, but nobody knows where. They've dragged the lake a billion times, but haven't found anything. Rumor is, the girl tries to drag people down to the lake and drown them, hoping that she will soon have revenge on the guy who killed her, her brother."

But they both just shrugged it off and called it another urban legend. You know, like the guy that eats pop rocks, then drinks soda causing his stomach to explode. Or the girl that roasted herself from the inside out from going to the tanning salon too many times in one week.

Anyways, when they went to the lake, they were swimming out there one day. The girl was climbing onto the raft, when she felt something grab her leg. She shook it off and yelled for her brother to stop it.

Then she noticed him hanging on the edge of the dock trying to fix his goggles. She was a bit scared, but didn't tell anybody. The next day, the girl and her brother were sitting on the raft. The brother noticed something below the raft. He peered through the boards of the raft and saw a girl, but not a normal girl. Her hair lay matted on her face, and she was dead and decaying.

After that, the brother and sister didn't go out to the lake for a while, until a week later.

Then, they were with their uncle. They were all sitting on the raft when the brother said he had to use the restroom. So he jumped of the raft and began to doggie paddle his way to the dock. About halfway there, a hand reached out of the water and pulled the brother under. By time the uncle and sister had arrived, they knew he was gone.

The sister told her uncle about the other times when they saw the girl. Sadly, the uncle led her to the house and showed her a picture album. It was filled with pictures of a young girl sitting on the edge of a dock, or walking through the forest with her uncle. Then, they came across a picture of the girl with her stepbrother. The weird thing about the picture was that the boy looked just like the recently drowned brother. He also looked EXACTLY like the uncle had, when he was that young.

-story end-

"That story was freaky." shivered Cream.

"Yeah, do you think that there could be a girl haunting the lake by the castle?" asked Tails.

Knuckles grinned an evil grin.

"Well, I was swimming around at the bottom with my old air necklace earlier today. I might have seen a dead body or two…"

Both Tails and Cream were shaking under the covers now.

Just then, a howling wind blew through the entire castle leaving it pitch black.

There was a loud shriek from the girls side that sounded like Creams and the sound of somebody bumping their head on the bunk above them. Tails flipped on his flashlight, which he had under his pillow, and scanned the room using his light. Cream was shaking violently under her covers and Amy was holding her pillow tightly. Knuckles had jumped from his bunk with his fists up and Shadow was rubbing his head (he must've been the one who hit his head).

In a few minutes, everybody had out their flashlights and Shadow had a large bump on his head.

"What was that?" asked Cream.

"It was the girl from the lake, coming to get you!" said Knuckles in a ghost-like voice.

"Don't scare her knuckles!" cried Tails. "There is no girl in the lake."

"How do you know?" asked Knuckles.

"Because it's only an urban legend." replied Tails.

"Really?" Knuckles turned towards the door and turned pale. "BLOODY MARY!" he yelled.

Tails, Cream, and Amy screamed. Knuckles laughed.

"That wasn't funny Knuckles!" yelled Kyra.

"I bet you got just as scared." he replied.

Kyra chucked a pack of batteries at him hitting him square in the head. Knuckles threw them back and missed.

"Come on guys, lets just go back to bed. Stop scaring everyone Knuckles." said Sonic.

Everyone got under the covers ad flipped off their flashlights.

**(God, I'm obsessed with urban legends now. Anyways, yay! Bloody Mary is my favorite urban legend. Its when you go into the bathroom, turn the lights off and stand in front of the mirror chanting Bloody Mary three times. Then she appears in the mirror and drags you in. MUAHAHAHAHA! Anyways…………. I'll try to finish up the next chapter soon! Yay for random people, use the Schwartz, blah blah blah. BYE!)**


	11. Amnesia again

**( wipes tear from cheek Your reviews were so nice. I will make an attempt on a longer chapter this time. Go stuff, hoorah! I will tell you all again cuz some of you didn't understand the first time I said it. AMY DOES NOT GET KILLED! NOR DOES ANY OTHER ORIGINAL CHARACTER! Now that we've cleared that up, on with the story thingamobbobity.)**

-nightmare-

Cream was sitting by a lake with her chao, Cheese and Chocola. They were eating a small picnic and playing. They decided to go sit at the waters edge and cool down their feet in the water. When Cream got to the water Cheese and Chocola were swimming in the water.

Cream laughed a bit as she watched them paddle through the murky waters. Just then, Cream saw a hand reach up and grab Chocola. Shortly afterwards, another hand reached up and grabbed Cheese. Cream let out a shriek of terror. She ran into the lakes shallows. She waded until she came to a sudden drop off in the water. Cream let out another shriek, she couldn't swim. She eventually sunk towards the bottom of the lake and touched the churning sand. It was hard to see in the murky water, but the shadow of a figure came close.

A girl walked up to her and strangled Cream with a rope yelling "BLOODY MARY! BLOODY MARY!"

-nightmare end-

Cream woke up screaming, which once again woke everybody up.

"What's wrong Cream?" asked Tails with a yawn.

"Yeah, why did you have to wake us up again?" grumbled Knuckles.

Cream had broken into a cold sweat and was looking around the room as if waiting for the girl to jump out at her and yell "boo"!

"It was Cheese and Chocola, I think there is something wrong with them, they got pulled down into the lake!" Cream panicked.

"Cheese and Chocola are fine, it was only a nightmare. Now go back to sleep!" groaned Amy as she pulled the covers over her head.

Cream silently laid her head back on her pillow and fell asleep quickly.

Cream woke up the next morning with circles under her eyes and yawned every five minutes.

Tails kept on flickering his eyes towards Rouge during breakfast that morning stabbing his fork randomly at his sausages.

Sonic noticing how Tails was trying to eat his sausage with a spoon asked him "You ok Tails?"

"What? Oh, nothing. It's just, does Rouge seem a bit pale to you?" he asked.

"In case you didn't notice, Rouge is a WHITE bat." said Shadow.

Tails blushed slightly. "Well, yeah. But-" he was cut off by Sonic.

"Tails, you're just being paranormal again. There is nothing wrong with Rouge." said Sonic.

"But what about-" Tails started.

"Drake is fine too. Just relax. You've only heard one too may vampire stories."

Tails stared at his lap for a while and finally said "Yeah, I'm just paranormal that's all." he whispered.

After breakfast, everybody was walking towards the cellar. Shadow had spread the word of another meeting about the strange stuff going on.

Tails walked down the halls peering around corners and looking over his shoulders, making sure he wouldn't be followed. He even looked up at the ceiling as if somebody would be crawling around up there.

Once he reached the cellar door, he again looked around in every direction (even up) to make sure he wasn't followed and slipped through the door.

When he entered, he found everybody already there (except for the usual people like Rouge and Drake.).

Shadow leaned against a wall with what looked like a few photos in his hand. Kyra sat cross-legged on top of a box not far from Shadow. Sonic had his elbow rested on a shelf of old dusty bottles and Amy sat on a large box with Cream. Knuckles was leaning against the wall near his hiding place from the last meeting.

Once Tails had rested himself on a crate, Shadow stood up straight and held up his photos.

"I'd like to show all of you these" he waved around the photos.

"I took these last night around the courtyard after Cream had her little nightmare." he showed them first one. "See that little ball of light near the bonfire pit? That's an orb, usually if you find an orb in a picture or home video, you've found a ghost."

Cream shivered and Knuckles raised an eyebrow.

Shadow showed them the next picture. "This one has a weird figure at the edge, it looks like the torso of a woman." he pointed at a weird silvery wisp in the shape of a woman's torso.

"This one also has an orb near that dead tree." he pointed again at another silvery ball. Shadow flipped to the next picture.

"I also found this one weird. If you can notice, there are not one but 6 orbs hovering over this one little area over here. But that's not the only thing; in that little area is a human skull."

Cream shrieked and Amy toppled off the barrel she was sitting on. Kyra stood up straighter to get a better look of the picture.

"But what does this have to do with anything?" asked Knuckles.

"Human skulls don't just appear out of thin air. They would have to be killed, unless your tiny little brain didn't know that." said Shadow.

Knuckles growled at Shadow. Tails, sensing danger, quickly asked "What are we supposed to do about this?" asked Tails.

'You will have to wait a while before you do anything. I have to go into town to order some equipment. Then we can do some ghost hunting every other night." replied Shadow.

"Won't Lucius and Veronica notice you are gone? I mean, they may be kept from the outside world, but their servants will realize you are gone too." said Kyra.

"I'll just make up some bullshit story about needing to buy some extra batteries and get some film developed. They won't tell the difference." said Shadow.

"When will you leave?" asked Sonic.

"Well, since you seem so eager to get rid of me, tomorrow. I won't enjoy going down that dark forest path again, I don't know the way. It was pitch black, so I will have to depend on tracking if I hit any forks in the road. I may be gone a few days, keep your eyes peeled for anything until then."

Everybody agreed with no further questioning. Shadow instructed them to leave the room separately so not to draw attention. Tails was the last one to leave the cellar. He carefully looked around the corner and noticed somebody there. Tails watched quietly, frozen to the spot.

He saw Drake walking up to Rouge.

"Oh come now Rouge, we both saw it coming. Anyways, this is the only way we can become closer…." he approached Rouge slowly and menacingly.

Tails was gaping at the scene before him. Was Drake going to seduce her in the hallway? Knuckles would murder Drake if he could see this.

Drake approached Rouge who had a glint of fear in her eye. She was flattened against the wall. Then, she noticed Tails out of the corner of her eye.

"Tails help!" she cried running towards him. "Drake isn't who you think, he's a vampire!"

"What?" was the last word he uttered. He felt a splitting pain in his head as he fell to the ground. He closed his eyes and tasted blood before he was completely knocked out.

Tails saw a figure standing over him.

He tried to move, but the pain in his head made it hard for him to concentrate. In time, everything came into focus and he saw Cream looking sitting next to his bed.

"Mister Sonic, he's awake!" cried Cream.

Sonic came rushing to the side of the bed.

"Finally, you gave us quite a scare there Tails." said Sonic.

Tails managed to sit up straight. He was back in the ballroom with his head wrapped in bandages. He felt a twinge of hunger in his stomach.

"What happened, how long have I been out?"

"We found you out cold in the hallway. You cracked your head open. You've been out for a week now."

"A WEEK!" yelled Tails.

"Yeah, you missed a lot. Once Shadow got back, we were able to start some ghost hunting. Luckily, there was a pharmacy in town also, so we could get some stuff to help your wound." said Sonic.

Tails reached up to his bandages, but was stopped by Cream.

"If you take them off, you'll start bleeding again. You'll have to keep the bandages on for a while." said Cream.

"What if-"

"Lucius and Veronica have left the castle shortly. Something about a family emergency. They won't be back until the festival this Friday." said Sonic.

"What day is it now?" inquired Tails.

"Wednesday." replied Cream.

Sonic looked around and then whispered "What exactly happened?"

Tails tried hard to remember. He remembered leaving the cellar, and then Drake talking to Rouge. After that, nothing.

"I-I don't know. It's just all, blank."

Everybody was silent for a while until there was the sound of footsteps outside and the doors swung open. Amy walked through the doors and ran towards Tails.

"Tails! You're awake! What happened?"

"No clue." he replied. "I'm suffering some amnesia here. I just remember Drake talking to Rouge, then….nothing!"

"Wait a second, Drake talking to Rouge? Knuckles isn't gonna be happy about this. He is already insinuating that HE is the one that did all this crap." said Sonic.

Tails looked around the room and felt a sharp twinge of pain in his head. He rested it against his pillow again and asked "What is his deal lately? Every time he sees that guy he gets all moody."

"Moody doesn't even BEGIN to describe it! He acts like a total jerk!" replied Amy.

"He's just, uh………..I don't know how to describe it, but he's not a jerk." said Sonic.

Tails tried to sit up straight again but his head felt like it was being stabbed by a knife.

Cream pushed him down to a lying position.

"You'll hurt yourself, just lie down." she said kindly, yet firmly.

Tails crossed his arms and sighed.

"How long do I have to lie in bed?"

"Long enough for you to start grimacing every time you sit up." replied Sonic

Tails groaned and attempted once again to sit up in bed.

"Stop it Tails, you'll hurt yourself. Just get some rest and try again tomorrow." said Cream.

"I don't see why I need rest after being knocked out for a week." argued Tails.

"Just get some sleep. We'll check on you again tomorrow." replied Sonic.

With that, Sonic, Cream, and Amy all got up and walked away.

Tails closed his eyes and sat there in bed for about an hour before he finally fell asleep.

-nightmare-

Tails walked down the hallway from the cellar. He was hiding from something, but he didn't know what. He walked through the twisting corridors, recognizing them as the way to the ballroom. He came to a corner were he heard a weird voice. He didn't recognize it. He tried to move forward, but there was a sharp pain in his head. He tried to move his hands, but they were chained to the ground. There was a cold laugh in the distance.

-ballroom-

Tails woke up silently. The hole ordeal seemed, familiar. He tried to remember the dream, but it was like holding water. The nightmare seemed to flow out of his reach as he tried harder to remember it.

He finally just gave up and went back to sleep, disturbed by the same dream over and over again.

**(Hope this chapter satisfies you. OVER 2000 WORDS! I'd like to say happy B-day to Speed to Sonic. HAPPY B-DAY! Anyways, this isn't the best fanfic for Tails. He keeps suffering memory loss. NOOOO! Don't worry, it'll stop………….sometime. Uh, blah blah blah. That fun crap, have fun reading the next chapter, if I ever finish it. BYE!)**


	12. Chapter 12

**(Ok, welcome to chapter twelve. Zephi got sick of writing all the chapters out by herself so Tails decided to help her out. **

**Tails: HI!**

**Zephi: … anyways, have fun reading!)**

Tails woke up the next morning, his head still hurt and his ears were buzzing. He sat up In bed and looked around. Everybody had already left for breakfast. He tried to get out of bed, but his entire body was stiff. He got out of bed very slowly and managed to stand up straight.

He walked towards the door and reached for the handle. Before he did, he saw the silhouette of Drake through the stained glass window. He backed up slowly as the knob began to turn. He quickly ran to his bed and pretended to be asleep.

Tails heard Drake walk into the room and go near Amy and Cream's bunk. He opened one eye and saw him sorting through all of Amy's stuff. He saw him pull out Amy's hairbrush.

_What the heck does he want that thing for?_

Drake moved his fingers through the brush and pulled out one of Amy's pink hairs.

Drake put the brush back and quickly ran out of the room. Tails once again got out of his bed and went up to Amy's bed. He sorted through her stuff to see if anything had been disturbed or taken. He could remember her talking about EVERYTHING she had packed back on the plane. Tails nearly fell asleep listening, but still managed to drink in every detail. He found nothing missing.

He quickly closed the bag and left the room. It was another stormy day out, and by the looks of it, it had been the entire time he was unconscious. The forest path and the path to the lake both seemed entirely flooded and the courtyard was filled with large puddles here and there.

"What is Drake up to? He is stealing hair from Amy's brush, taking Rouge on nighttime strolls, and he was the last thing I remember before waking up in my bed with amnesia. He has to have something to do with all the weird stuff going on."

Tails dwelled on this subject for a while. In his deep thought, Tails had not paid attention to where he was going and found himself in front of a large purple door covered in stars. It had a weird inscription on it that Tails could not translate.

He pushed aside the doors and found himself in an immense library.

**( Tails: Now where have I seen this before? Zephi: Shut up, Tails! They are trying to read the story! Tails: Sorry.)**

Tails walked up to the shelves and looked at some of the labels. A lot of historic junk and biographies. He soon found that the books had no particular order and were just shoved on the shelves wherever people wanted them to be.

He noticed a table groaning with books. Tails walked up to the table and looked among the piles. He saw one book labeled "The Home of Vlad Tepes: A History of construction and occurrences."

Tails eagerly pulled the book from the pile. As he yanked the book from its place, the pile wobbled and fell on Tails.

Tails pushed the books off of him and stood up, his head throbbing.

"What are you doing here?" asked a voice from behind the table of books.

Tails looked up and saw Knuckles picking up piles of books and setting them on the table.

"Knuckles?" asked Tails.

"No, it's the Easter bunny."

"What are you doing here?"

"Reading, what are you doing here?"

"You can read?"

"Of course I can! What do you think I am doing here? Christmas shopping?"

"What are you looking for?"

"Something on this stupid castle."

"You mean like this?"

Tails held out the book he pulled from the pile. Knuckles took it from Tails and flipped through it.

"Where'd you find this?"

"It was in your pile of books. When I pulled it out, the whole thing toppled on top of me!" replied Tails.

"I noticed."

"Do you think it has blue prints in there?"

"Don't need them." replied Knuckles.

"What do you mean?"

"Me and Rouge were in here the night we arrived, before that Drake idiot showed up. We were looking through books and she found a map."

"Do you still have it?"

"No, she kept it and I've barely said a word to her since Drake showed up."

"Then what are we supposed to do?"

"Do you ask enough questions?"

"Hopefully."

"Your funny. We will probably have to steal the map from her stuff. Hopefully she doesn't stuff valuables down her shirt."

"You felt comfortable yanking it down in the woods."

"That wasn't me! How many times do I have to say it?"

"Then who was it? Shadow?"

"That would be something to laugh about, but no. He was at the back of the group and we were more near the front, remember?"

"No that you mention it, Rouge, Sonic, you, and me were all in the middle. Amy, Cream, and Shadow were towards the back. Are you trying to say Sonic did it?"

"That amnesia must really be affecting your brain. Of course it wasn't Sonic!"

"Well then who? It wasn't me!"

"Well you were even lower on the list than the girls. I was actually thinking that it might be…"

"….Knuckles?"

"I was thinking it might be Drake."

"But Drake wasn't here yet! He couldn't of-"

"What about the cave he took Rouge into? It had diary notes he had written BEFORE he was supposed to arrive. I saw you and Cream go in."

"No we didn't, Knuckles you must be getting paranoid."

**(Tails: See, PARANOID! Not PARANORMAL! Zephi: Be nice, Tails.)**

"I'm not being paranoid! Drake must've erased your memory, I was watching him, but I didn't think he was doing what he did."

Then, it all came back. The dots of candlelight through the fog, the candlelit cave, the diary page, Drake erasing Cream and Tails' memory. It all went back in a rush of light, flickering past his eyes.

"You ok, Tails?"

Tails suddenly became aware that he was still in the library, and drooling slightly, which was different for him because he was SO handsome.

**(Zephi: Tails! Tails: Shh, you are interrupting the story! Zephi: grumble)**

Anxiously, he dug into his memory for what had happened before he was knocked out…...nothing.

"I just remembered it! You are right! It probably WAS Drake that did all that."

"Do you remember what happened before you were knocked out?"

"No."

Knuckles leaned against the table and sighed.

"I'll try to look though this book tonight. I want you to look out for Rouge, nobody has seen her lately. I think that stupid vampire bat has had his way with her already."

"So you think he is a vampire too?"

"Yep, and if I'm correct, he'll be after another girl very soon."

Tails realized something. It made since now! Why Drake was looking through Amy's stuff.

"It's Amy!"

"What?"

"I saw him going through Amy's stuff earlier. He took one of her hairs! What do you think it was for?"

"Maybe a shrine or some kind or love potion. Maybe even a voodoo doll, who knows!"

"Wait a second; don't vampires have to be WELCOMED into somebody's house?"

"Lucius and Veronica were kind enough to take care of that for us."

"What if there is a grave around here? They can't touch hollow ground!"

"I think that is Witches. We could hide garlic around the castle; those servants don't ever seem to clean anything anyways."

Tails looked around the room.

"Where will we get garlic?"

"I'll run into town to get that, and some other stuff."

"When?"

"Tomorrow."

"Ok then, is that it?"

"Yep."

"Can I go?"

"Nobody's stopping you."

"Ok then, bye."

"Bye."

"Bye."

"Bye."

"Bye already!"

Tails left the room in a hurry and jogged back to the ballroom.

When he pushed aside the doors, he saw all the girls talking about something on their side of the room. None of the boys were there, and Amy was missing.

**(Tails: See, I was right! Zephi: Tails you are going to give me bad reviews! Tails: You get reviews? Zephi: Yes and people are going to hunt me down for putting authors notes in the middle of the story! Tails: Sorry Zephi: No you are not.)**

Tails approached the girls and listened silently to the conversation.

"…..they'll stick right to the bed, and they'll smell like shaving cream." Tails heard Kyra whisper.

"Who has all the supplies?" asked Cream.

"Amy, she is getting them right now." replied Kyra.

"So, we are pranking ALL the boys?" asked Cream.

"Hopefully not." said Tails causing Kyra and Cream to jump a foot from their beds.

"Did you hear…..well, what DID you hear?" asked Kyra.

"That you were going to cover the boys in shaving cream and something sticky tonight. But don't worry, as long as you don't prank me, I won't tell anybody."

Kyra and Cream looked at each other for a while then both nodded their heads yes.

"Oh, and the sticky stuff is going to be melted rosin from a chemistry set." said Cream.

"It comes out, but I'd still be careful with it if I were you."

Just then, Amy walked into the room with a bag filled with what was probably melted rosin and shaving cream.

"Tails knows." said Kyra simply.

Amy dropped the bag on the ground near her bed.

"You won't tell anybody, will you?"

"I swear, I personally think that Shadow could use a wake-up call.

"I'm doing Shadow." said Amy. "Kyra is doing Knuckles and Cream is doing Sonic. Rouge was going to do you, but we haven't seen her for a while, so we gave up on her."

"How can I help without doing any actual pranking?"

"Try making a good scary story or something, anything to keep their minds on other things for a while." said Amy.

Tails shrugged his shoulders and walked out of the ballroom to find Sonic, Knuckles, and Shadow sitting in the corner talking.

Tails went up to the group and listened to the conversation hoping it was not another planned prank.

"Hey Tails, guess what we just saw!" said Sonic.

"What?" asked Tails curiously?

Shadow held out a picture of one of the hallways.

"See that?" he pointed to the edge of the picture, which was overshadowed. He showed him five other pictures of different places in the castle. "The right side of all of the pictures I've taken, including the ones in the courtyard have shadows on the right side. They were all taken at different times so it could not be lighting and I took a picture of a few street signs so I would know my way back to the castle when I went to the town. The shadows weren't in any of those pictures."

"So?" asked Tails.

"So, I asked these two bookshop owners and they said that the same thing happens in this weird haunted lighthouse that's in one of their books."

"What were you doing in a bookshop?" asked Tails.

"Looking for a book on this Vlad Tepes character."

"Did you find one?"

"Yep."

Shadow held up a black book with a painting of Vlad Tepes on the cover and dark red letters saying "Vlad the Impaler: The bloody ruler of Wallachia."

**(Tails: Why was he called Vlad the Impaler? Zephi: After he beheaded his enemies he stuck their heads on spears. Tails: Eww, do you think the people reading this story really want to hear all of that? Zephi: You are the one that asked.)**

"Have you read it yet?" asked Tails.

"No, I plan to stay up late tonight reading.

Remembering the prank, Tails replied. "Not tonight, you will, um….. be too tired for the race tomorrow! Same with Sonic, and Knuckles will be too worn out for the treasure hunt."

They were all quiet for a while until Shadow said "Fine, you aren't competing right? You can read the book tonight." said Shadow simply.

Tails groaned and said "Ok then."

They all walked into the ballroom and sat down on their beds.

"So, you all up for a scary story?" asked Tails.

"Yeah Tails, lets hear it."

"Just don't scare us too much, or we will be waking up in the middle of the night again." said Kyra.

"Ok then everybody, it goes a little like this………."

**(Tails: Wasn't that a great chapter? Zephi: It would be better if you didn't interrupt so much.**

**Tails: Come on Zephi, it wasn't that bad! Zephi: I guess it wasn't that bad. Tails: So I get to help write the next chapter? Zephi: No, I promised Amy she could help. Tails: Darn it, I thought you didn't like Amy. Zephi: Don't tell that to the readers, they hate when I talk about it. Tails: What about Amy? Zephi: You can tell her, she won't believe you. Tails: OK! )**


	13. Defenitely vampires

**(A/N Hello, me again, welcome to chapter 13. Amy is here to help me write this chapter.**

**Amy: Wait, isn't thirteen an unlucky number?**

**Zephi…Maybe.**

**Amy: Is something bad gonna happen to me as soon as we walk out of here.**

**Zephi: …Maybe.**

**Amy: looks around fearfully**

**Zephi: Ok then, let's just get started then.)**

-story-

Ok, Tails was walking around the apartment he and Sonic lived in, and it was storming like mad outside. Rain splattered against the windows and there was a pitter-patter of raindrops on the roof. Tails was crumpling up a note Sonic had left him explaining that he had ran to the supermarket to pick up some junk.

Tails opened the fridge and pulled out a tub of ice cream. As he searched the kitchen for a spoon, he heard the sound of footsteps in his bedroom.

Tails shrugged it off and guessed it was the apartment next door just walking around.

He sat at the kitchen table and ate the ice cream as he flipped through a magazine.

As he read about a new car coming out next year, Tails heard a slipslop sound somewhere nearby.

He ignored it and guessed it was somebody who just came in from the rain. A few minutes later, he heard it again. Tails stood up from the table and walked to the apartment door. He looked outside, but couldn't see anybody.

Tails shrugged and walked inside, when he did, he saw water all over the floor outside of his bedroom.

Tails walked to the bedroom and opened the door. He saw the closet door shut in a hurry as he walked in.

"Sonic, this isn't funny." said Tails.

He walked up to the closet door and look inside, there wasn't anything in there. He closed the doors and turned around. He left the bedroom and walked down the hallway to the kitchen. He glanced at a wall mirror as he passed and screamed at what he saw; a girl was standing next to him with long black hair and yellow eyes. She smiled and began to sing "Ring around the rosy." softly, in a creepy voice.

"Ring around the rosy…" a burn mark appeared on Tails' wrist.

"A pocket full of posy…" blood seeped out of the burn mark.

"Ashes, ashes…" Tails screamed as he saw that his reflection showed him entirely burned.

"All fall down!"

-story end-

"That was really scary, I think I'm gonna have nightmares now." said Amy.

**( Amy: No I won't. Zephi: Just watch…. Amy: I'm not a scaredy cat. Zephi: BOO! Amy: AHHHH! Zephi: smirks )**

"That was cool Tails. Anybody else have one?"

Everybody looked at each other expectantly, but nobody would budge.

"We haven't heard from you yet Kyra." said Sonic.

Kyra sighed. "Ok then, let's see. This was a nightmare I had last night.

-nightmare-

Kyra was playing truth or dare with some of her friends in the park one night.

"Ok Kyra, your turn! Truth, or dare?" asked a giggly white cat.

"I'll take a dare." said Kyra.

"Ok then. I dare you, to go into the woods, and swim in that bog, alone!" she giggled.

"Cassie, no! That place is haunted! If you go into the bog, you get pulled down by a little boy that drowned there last year!" shrieked a gray squirrel.

"Oh come on Christy, that stupid bog isn't haunted. We've been down there plenty of times before." said Kyra.

"We just never swim in it." said Cassie.

Kyra got up from the patch of grass they were sitting on and walked into the dense forest. She pushed aside several branches and got her skirt caught in a thorn bush or two along the way, and when she reached the bog, her boots were covered in leaves and dirt.

She approached the bog and looked into the murky waters. She saw something move, but decided that the worst thing she could run into there was a water snake.

Kyra kicked off her boots and cautiously stepped into the muddy water. She walked in until she was about waist high and went under water. She swam towards the middle of the bog and saw something move not too far away.

"Cassie, that's not funny." said Kyra.

She treaded water for a bit and then decided to swim back to the shore.

As she did, she felt something grab her ankle.

She tried to get free, but whatever was holding onto her wasn't going to let go. She looked down and saw a boy with eerie blonde hair covered in seaweed with bluish skin gripping her ankle. She tried to let out a scream, but she had no breath left. She was going to drown!

The next day, police investigated the area and asked Cassie and Christy questions about what happened. When they were done being questioned, Cassie and Christy walked up to the edge of the bog and looked into the murky waters, were they saw the face of the boy, and of their deceased friend Kyra.

-story end-

Once Kyra had finished the story, Cream was shaking under her covers and Amy was hugging her pillow.

"Ok, I think that's enough for tonight, lets go to bed." said Sonic.

Everybody got under their covers and fell asleep quickly, well, everybody but Tails and the girls.

When everybody else was asleep, Kyra flicked her flashlight on and off twice. Amy, Cream, and Kyra all got out of bed and pulled some Shaving Cream and rosin from under their pillows.

Tails closed his eyes and listened to the sound of Shaving cream being squirted from their nozzles. In a few minutes, h could smell rosin and shaving cream in the air. The foul stench made it difficult to sleep, so tails got under his covers and flicked on his flashlight.

He pulled out a piece of paper and doodled on it for a bit, drawing a picture of him in his robot walker.

As he drew in a few fine details, he heard someone whisper his name.

"Tails?"

He perked his ears up and got out from under the covers to find Cream standing next to his bed.

"Cream? What's wrong?" he asked.

"I-I can't sleep, I'm afraid that little girl in your story will come after me."

"Cream, that story isn't real."

She looked around and whispered "Whenever I close my eyes, I see her face and hear her singing."

Tails got out of bed and whispered "Come on, lets go for a walk."

They walked out of the ballroom silently and walked down a hallway.

"I'm afraid that, what happened in that story will really happen." whispered Cream.

Tails looked surprised.

"What do you mean, that can't happen in real life."

Cream closed her eyes and whispered "I don't want you to die."

Tails stopped and looked at Cream warmly. "I'm not gonna die Cream. It was just a story." he smiled.

**(Amy: Awww, how romantic! Zephi: Amy, you're ruining the moment. Amy: Why can't you make romantic stuff like that happen with Sonic and me? Zephi: Moving on!)**

Cream rested her head on Tails shoulder as they walked along once they got back to the ballroom, she seemed fine again.

Cream hugged Tails tightly and whispered "Thanks" before running off to his bed.

Tails woke up the next morning in a rather cheerful mood. He was the first one up, so he decided to walk around the castle for a bit.

He walked down the now almost familiar hallways of the castle thinking about some of the stuff going on. Well, the festival would be something to look forward to. An image of Sonic and Shadow trying to kill each other during the race came to his head, making him smirk.

As he walked past a stained glass door similar to the ballrooms, he heard Lucius and Veronica behind the door.

"Drake, we can't keep this up. The townspeople are starting to wonder!" said Veronica. "If we keep doing this, the authorities will be on us in already 17 different countries! This is getting dangerous."

"How else will we be able to stay here! We deserve life more than they do!" came Drake's silky voice.

"But they are innocent. We are but parasites, living off another." said Lucius.

"But their blood is our fuel, unless we do this, we will all just be hungry souls scavenging for blood. We might as well just use the townspeople if they are such a hazard!" argued Drake.

"But we can survive hunger, unlike those whom we feed upon. We can still exist with hunger." said Veronica.

**(Amy: Wait a second, are they Vampires? Zephi: No Amy, they are unicorns. Happy prancing unicorns that feed on human blood. )**

"But it will cut at us like blades, it will eventually become torture. We can't just live like that. It will draw us out of hiding!" replied Drake.

"But what is the use if we are to kill thousands for the lives of three?" answered Lucius.

"Ah, but we haven't killed yet. I plan to let that fruit bat live. She isn't even one of us yet. She is still human, but after the festival tomorrow, she can just say goodbye to mortality." answered Drake.

"But then we will have to feed more people with the blood of others." debated Veronica.

"Better than to kill such a beautiful creature though, you must agree." added Drake.

Tails felt a sudden rush again, flashes of forgotten images raced past his eyes, all the things he had forgotten from his amnesia. Rouge running towards him, the sound of her voice yelling the warning of Drake being a vampire. There was a sharp pain in his head and he put hand on the wall for support. And just as quick as it came, the pain disappeared.

There was a long pause in which Tails was afraid he might have been discovered. Luckily for him, the pause was ended by Veronica saying "I agree, but on one condition. If you are ever to be taken, we will not continue this! The tradition will end, we can promise you that."

"Agreed." said Drake with what Tails guessed was one of his mischievous smiles.

He heard the shuffling of feet and Tails rushed down the hallway and turned a corner just as he heard the noise of the door opening. He decided to head back to the ballroom so he wouldn't raise any suspicions that he had heard their conversation, leaving him with proof that they were all in danger.

When he entered the ballroom, none of the other boys were awake, but Cream and Kyra were huddled together talking. Tails was about to just walk over to his bed, but he was motioned by Cream to join the group.

He shrugged and walked towards the huddle.

He sat down on Rouge's empty bed and asked "What's going on?"

"It's Amy, she's missing. There's no trace of her anywhere. We woke up at the crack of dawn and she was gone." whispered Kyra.

"Did you look for her?" asked Tails.

"We did a castle wide search! We can't find her anywhere!" answered Kyra.

"The only place we didn't look was that forest path and the actual lake." added Cream.

"We looked around the banks, but then we came to these high rocky areas we couldn't climb up. Cream was too tired to fly, so we decided to come back here and check there later." said Kyra.

"We have to head back as soon as we can."

The two girls seemed puzzled.

"Why? She probably just got lost or something. It's not like she's gonna get eaten by a bear." said Kyra.

"You don't understand, I think Amy is in real danger." replied Tails.

"What?" asked Cream.

Tails explained what he had heard behind the door quickly in a low whisper. After what he heard, he was afraid Drake was listening in on their conversation that very minute.

When he finished, there was silence for a minute, broken by a yell from Knuckles.

"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!"

Kyra, Cream, and Tails all ran for the door to escape Knuckles, who had woken up Shadow and Sonic also.

"Come back here you bastards!" yelled Shadow.

"What do we do?" asked Kyra running as fast as she could.

"We should go check out that area at the lake, before we get killed by Knuckles!" replied Tails.

Kyra was faster than Cream and Tails who were already beginning to get tired from all of the running they were doing.

By time they got outside, Tails and Cream were leaning against the cool stone wall of the castle catching their breath. Kyra appeared fine and was trying to get Tails and Cream going again.

"Come on you guys! Tails said Amy was in danger! We have to go before Drake turns her into a bloodsucker!" said Kyra.

"Or sucks up enough blood to kill her." panted Tails.

"Exactly my point, now let's get going!" she said pulling Cream and Tails off the wall.

They trudged through the mud and waded through the now rather deep puddles left behind from the past night's rainstorm.

As they walked, Cream could've swore she saw something moving in the trees, but they ignored it.

The kept walking, it was taking longer than last time because now the water was up to chest height and hard to move through with all the mud at the bottom.

Then, Tails saw it too, a lavender and magenta figure moving through the woods.

"That's no animal you guys, there is somebody in the woods." said Tails.

"Well, let's go see what they want." said Kyra moving towards the woods.

When they got into the trees, they didn't hear or see anything.

"You guys are just being paranoid, there's nobody out there!" said Kyra.

**(Amy: How many times have you used the word "Paranoid" now? Zephi: About four or five times. I don't remember.)**

Then, there was a noise of a snapping twig. Everybody snapped in the direction of the sound and saw a magenta tail disappear behind a rock. The group moved cautiously towards the rock, careful not to make any noise in case it was dangerous.

**(Amy: They're afraid of a stupid rock? Zephi: You have no idea.)**

Tails peered behind the rock, then jumped back and screamed.

From behind the rock, jumped a lavender hedgehog with a sky blue and sun yellow dress wearing sky blue shoes. She had a rock in her hand and a stick in the other, her ocean blue eyes piercing through Tails.

"Stand back! I have a rock! I'll crack your skull in two!" she yelled.

"Wait a second!" yelled Kyra jumping between Tails and the hedgehog.

"What is going on here? Who are you?"

"My name is Star-la, our plane crashed around here not too long ago. What are YOU doing here?"

"We're staying in this castle outside of the woods on vacation. We saw you in here and- wait a second, what do you mean OUR plane?" asked Tails.

"I'm with my friend Susie." she pointed at the rock were a magenta two-tailed fox was peering out from the top of the rock."

"I see, well come with us. I hope Mr. And Mrs. Drake- Draco-, UGH! I hope Lucius and Veronica don't mind another guest." said Kyra.

They made their way out of the woods and were about to go into the puddle when Susie appeared from the woods and asked "Wait a second, why don't we just fly over the water?" as she fiddled with her purple and yellow dress that matched her purple shoes.

Tails and Cream looked at each other and Kyra hit herself on the forehead.

"Well, we sure are illogical."

Tails grabbed Kyra and flew up into the air next to Cream while Star-la grabbed Susie's ankles before Susie went airborne.

"This feels wonderful! It's been I while since I flew!" said Cream flapping her enormous bunny ears.

The group flew towards the castle, not knowing that they had left someone behind.

**(Amy: Who did they leave behind, who? Zephi: Wait until the next chapter. Amy: Come on, please? Zephi: No. Amy: Can I at least help write the next chapter. Zephi: No, I want to write it by myself this time. Amy: grumble. Zephi: Ok then, hope you like the story. If the interruptions in the middle of the story (glares at Amy) are annoying you please, by all means complain. I will try to finish the next chapter as soon as possible. Until then, I need some coffee. BYE! Amy: BYE!)**


	14. Cream Dissapears

**(Welcome to chapter 14! God, this story is getting long! Thanks for all of the reviews! You guys are the only thing (besides my free will) spurring me to finish this story. Is spurring a word? Anyways, you guys have really helped me out a lot! Oh, and Komodo, what did you mean in your review? I'd also like to say that this is the end of Kyra's stay in the castle. I'd like to thank Kyra the Hedgehog for allowing me to use her in my story. Well, in the immortal words of me and my friend, "Snickerdoodle!")**

-nightmare-

A plane crash lay in the middle of a dead forest, the flames had cleared out the area of any trees and were doused by the heavy rain. A cat was trapped among the rubble, coughing harshly among the thick clouds of smoke and ash. A gust of wind blew lifting leaves into the air and whirling them around in a graceful dance.

The cat reached through a hole in the rubble, her arm was the only thing that could fit through. She brushed her dirty brown hair out of her face and picked a stick up off of the ground.

She began to etch something illegible on the wing of the plane. The runes scratch into the wing would make no since to me or you, like some made-up language.

A gust of wind blew more ash and leaves into the small space trapping the cat in a harsh fit of coughing.

She continued to etch the strange runes on the wing of the plane, until the small space she could write on was filled.

The cat rubbed ash from he eyes and shook it from her hair, engulfing her in a dark cloud. She gave one last series of coughs and collapsed on the ash below her.

-nightmare end-

Tails bolted up from the nightmare breathing hard and damp with sweat. He closed his eyes and reduced his breathing back to a normal rate trying to remember the details of the dream.

There was a cat stuck in… an accident. A huge accident. She was… trapped among the rubble… suffocating on ash and smoke. She wrote something… on the rubble, but it made no since. It was just a heap of gibberish to him. It must've been important, or she wouldn't have wrote it. She was… sick, or dying. The ash was overpowering her, she was going to die.

Tails shook his head and thought "No, It was just a dream. That plane crash… Susie and Star-la were the only survivors." He looked around the ballroom, passing over the two spare cots pulled out for Star-la and Susie, and resting his eyes on Rouge and Amy's empty bunks.

If his premonition was right, it wouldn't be long before Drake had Cream, Kyra, and now Susie and Star-la.

The one thing that had been itching at his mind since he overheard the conversation between Lucius,

Veronica, and Drake was "What will happen after Drake is done with the girls? Will he then go after the boys? And why attack the girls first? Does he only feed on females and then just plain out kill males?

Tails rested his head on his pillow. "That dream was just another nightmare, no matter how real it seemed." he thought.

As he drifted back to sleep, the last thought that popped into his head was "Or was it?"

-nightmare-

Cream was walking along the edge of the lake, leaving footprints behind her in the wet sand. The waters were dark and murky. You couldn't see anything a foot below the surface of the lake. The sun shone bright overhead making the surface of the lake shimmer beautifully.

After walking for a while, Cream came up to the high cliff she had seen the day before. Feeling a lot more energetic, she confidently pushed herself of the ground getting caught in a gust of wind. Flapping her enormous ears, she soon came to a higher part of the cliff, but now, tall trees were in the way keeping her from flying farther. She could probably fly above the trees, but she thought it would be better if she just walked.

The top of the cliff was rather mossy and covered with small bogs and swamps. No sunlight shone through the dense trees, making it near impossible to see anything. As she walked along, she saw a large rock she could probably climb to see where she was.

She searched the rock for handholds and slowly, but surely scaled the large rock. When she got to the top and looked out, she couldn't see anything but forest for miles and miles.

"That's odd, I've only been walking for an hour or two." said Cream.

Another strange thing was that the trees seemed to move, as if flowing in a breeze, yet she couldn't feel any wind at all.

As she climbed down the rock, Cream noticed a pink figure walking into a clump of trees not too far away.

"Amy!" cried Cream.

The pink figure didn't seem to have heard.

"Amy, it's me, Cream! We've been looking all over for you!" she said racing after her.

"We've been so worried, Tails said that you and Rouge were kidnapped by Drake and-" the words escaped Creams mouth as she found herself in a small clearing with a bog in the center.

"Amy?" whispered Cream frightfully.

In the blink of an eye, Amy appeared sitting next to the edge of the bog, staring at the murky waters.

Cream walked up to her and reached her hand out to touch her shoulder. As soon as she did, she felt a stabbing pain in her head. All the events that had happened before Drake had put her to sleep, before he made her forget flashed before her eyes. Also, unfamiliar events from the eyes of Amy. Being lured by Drake, how he tortured her mind and slit her wrist with a blade to suck the blood. How she had been controlled by means of a voodoo doll with a piece of her hair melted into the wax doll.

The icy grip tortured her brain, giving her the pain of her head being split in two.

She tried to release herself, but it was like she was chained to the spot. She could only struggle.

She let out a horrific scream as she broke away from the bond.

-nightmare end-

Cream woke with a start, the pain from her dream still stinging her head. Tears were streaming from her eyes as she put her hand on her aching head. She felt something warm on her head though. She looked at her hand and saw it covered with blood. "It…really…happened." she whispered as she fainted at the sight of her own blood.

Tails awoke the next morning still thinking about his dream. He wasn't sure if he should tell anybody about the girl. He was sure that it wasn't real, but he was still a bit troubled by it. He would just have to check out the crash site later in order to prove to himself it was just a nightmare. As he left for breakfast, he didn't notice that Cream's bed was empty or that there were drops of blood on her pillow.

Lucius and Veronica were at breakfast that day (to Tails' surprise) and seemed bright and happy. He could tell why. It was a bright day outside, and everything was almost completely dry save a few puddles here and there.

As he began to eat, he noticed Kyra was gone. He guessed her time here was over and she had headed home. She already had stayed longer than planned because of the rain delay.

Amy and Rouge were still gone, and Tails now realized that Cream wasn't here either.

Sonic, Shadow, and Knuckles were all huddled together talking about something and pointing at a piece of paper Shadow was holding. Tails moved slowly towards the group to listen to what they were saying.

"-we need to go there now. This cliff probably is our only obstacle to get to the girls. It's the only place we haven't checked." said Sonic.

"We can't go today though, it's the festival and there will be all kinds of crud going on. Lucius and Veronica will expect us to be there." said Shadow.

"Well, we could send somebody while we are competing and everybody is paying attention to the events." said Knuckles.

"But who isn't competing?" asked Sonic.

"I'm not." answered Tails.

Everybody looked at Tails.

"I'm not competing or anything and I can slip by unnoticed." added Tails.

Knuckles looked at Sonic and Sonic nodded.

"Alright, but you'll need to bring some stuff along." said Sonic.

"Like what?"

"Like us." said Star-la. Star-la and Susie appeared behind Shadow.

"We aren't going to sit back and relax while you have all of the fun. We're helping." said Star-la.

"But-" started Tails.

"Even if it means having to fight, we'll go." said Susie.

There was nothing but silence for a minute, then Tails sighed.

"Ok, but I'm warning you it's dangerous."

"Well I don't care. Susie?"

"Me neither."

"Ok, like I said, you'll need to bring some stuff with you."

"Like my old air necklace." said Knuckles.

"And Rouge's treasure scope." said Shadow.

"Where'd you get that?" asked Tails.

"Her stuff was still here, so we just grabbed it." said Sonic.

"You'll also need this camera, so you can get proof of anything we'll need." said Shadow handing him a digital camera.

"When should I go?" asked Tails.

"When we start actually competing. There will be a lot of people there from the town, so you should be able to slip through the crowd." said Shadow.

"Do you know when the actual festival starts?" asked Tails.

"There were fliers all over town saying it started this afternoon." said Shadow.

"That reminds me, Knuckles, did you ever go into town?" asked Tails.

"No, but if we don't solve our problem soon, I will." said Knuckles.

"What problem?" asked Sonic, Susie, Star-la, and Shadow together.

Tails and Knuckles explained everything about Drake and how Tails really got his amnesia. They also explained everything they had found out and Tails explained the conversation he had heard between Lucius, Drake, and Veronica.

By time the had finished, everybody was finished with breakfast and the only people left in there were Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Star-la, Susie, and Shadow.

"So this is more serious than we thought." said Shadow when Tails and Knuckles were finished.

"There's more weird stuff here then just ghosts." said Sonic.

"This place is haunted?" asked Susie,

"Yeah, REALLY haunted."

"Like Myrtle Plantation?" asked Star-la.

"What's that?" asked Knuckles.

"It's an old plantation in Louisiana. It's the most haunted place in the United States." said Tails.

"Yeah, well this is the most haunted place in Europe practically." said Knuckles.

"Haunted or not, this place is still dangerous and we NEED to do this, or we are in trouble."

"Wait a second, you only have ONE air necklace, what happens if we run into… an underwater cave or something?" asked Star-la.

"Then Tails goes on alone I guess." said Sonic.

Just then the door opened and Drake walked in.

"Why, hello. I hope you all are ready for the festival competition. I am unbeatable when it comes to treasure hunting." he said in his usual silky voice.

"Yeah, well not for long." replied Knuckles.

"This WILL be an interesting festival then." he answered in a yet more silky voice.

That afternoon, people from the town started arriving at the castle. Slowly, the grounds started to fill up with people, both poor and seemingly rich. Men and woman were stretching and preparing for the coming events.

Sonic and Shadow kept on throwing each other death glares as they watched their pathetic competition. Knuckles just laughed at the guys carrying around metal detectors and magnets with hope they would assist them in the treasure hunt. Drake was watching from a stone bench in the front garden with some amusement.

There was a large banquet table being set up on the edge of the festival with elegant foods and luscious deserts.

At about 1:00, Lucius and Veronica sat down at a large table with a megaphone and two sheets of paper. Lucius cleared his voice and announced in the megaphone "All people wishing to sign up for the race or treasure hunt please sign up at the front table."

Sonic and Shadow were the first competitors to sign up. This dampened the spirits of some people, but others still joined.

Too bad they didn't run at their full speed, or they would be the only contestants.

Knuckles and Drake signed up right away, people lined up behind them carrying metal detectors and magnets. Rich people lined up carrying odd gadgets and gizmos flashing and blinking.

Within a few minutes, the lines disappeared and Lucius began once again to talk into his megaphone "We will start with our race. The race will go through the castle were we have put down tape lines. The first to emerge from the castle wins!"

Tails began to creep through the large crowd of people towards the path to the lake. He managed to slip through completely unnoticed by anybody that would really care. He made his way to the path where he met Susie and Star-la.

"Ready?" asked Tails.

"Only if you are." replied Star-la.

They cautiously went down the path towards the lake when….

"Why, what are you doing away from the festival?" asked Drake.

"Ahhh! Drake, I didn't see you there!" said Tails.

"Why, didn't you hear? We have people patrolling this place, we found some trespassers on neighboring lands, so we closed down the lake suspecting burglars. We also have the castle guarded, so come back to the festival, the race is nearly over." he said pushing them back towards the crowd.

There was a loud cheer from the crowd as Lucius yelled "And the winner is…"

**(Yay, that was a fun chapter to write. Hope you like it, hope I'm not rushing, hope the story doesn't suck, hope you all berate me endlessly. BYE!)**


	15. In your face Drake!

**(Yay, chapter 15! I've been obsessed with writing out my story lately, I wanted to make my last chapter longer, but I had the worst urge to just post it so I ended it in the most craptactular way ever. So, thanks for the reviews, and on with the story!)**

"And the winner is…SHADOW!" cried Lucius.

"Shadow!" blurted Tails.

Susie and Star-la were cheering loudly as Tails nudged his way through the crowd. He was surprised when he saw the Sonic was the only one not at the finish line. Tails ran up to Shadow and asked him "Where's Sonic?"

"I don't know…" he shrugged. "…and I don't care. He was right next to me one moment, and gone the next."

"Did he break a leg or something?" asked Tails.

"I don't know, if he did, the servants will find him. They are clearing out all of the tape right now."

Veronica walked up to Shadow with a fine crafted mahogany box and said "Congratulations, inside this box is your prize."

Shadow opened the box and smugly took out the prize.

"A chaos emerald!" blurted Tails.

"Lucky me." smirked Shadow. He pocketed the emerald in one of his invisible pockets and walked off.

Lucius once again picked up his megaphone and yelled out "The next event will be our treasure hunt, in which the contestants will seek out a chaos emerald hidden somewhere in the conservatory." he said pointing to the greenhouse. "The person who finds the emerald will win what they find. I'm afraid metal detectors and magnets would be useless here, and any electronics are prohibited."

Several people threw aside their supplies and looked around fearfully hoping that everybody else was as helpless as they were. Knuckles was jabbing the air getting ready and Drake was moving his wings around.

"You know Knucklehead, when I win this contest, I could bring Rouge out of her hiding with that beautiful emerald." he said in an extremely silky voice.

"At the buzzer, 3...2...1..." cried Lucius. A loud buzzer sounded and the contestants raced towards the greenhouse. Knuckles and Drake were gliding causing cheers from the entire crowd. Once inside the conservatory, people were searching through plants and digging through bags of soil. It was a funny sight to watch actually. Drake and Knuckles sped through the greenhouse searching in places nobody else had thought of, like the inside of a frog's mouth that issued water into a well and inside an electric light.

After an hour, some contestants flopped down on benches while others left the greenhouse giving up completely. Knuckles and Drake were still searching.

Knuckles was thinking as fast as he could. They said inside the conservatory, and he had looked everywhere. Well, he knew they didn't sneak anything in or leave any loopholes. The just said conservatory, which only meant one other thing, greenhouse! Unless…

Knuckles frantically searched his mind for what he remembered of that map Rouge found. He remembered something about the conservatory, it was a passageway, something about shovels….. He couldn't remember.

"Bingo!" he whispered racing towards the shovels. He grabbed one and stuck it in a crack in the ground, he heard a clicking noise and a frog at the nearby well stopped spurting water. Knuckles raced over there and lifted up the frog. There lay the chaos emerald. Knuckles grabbed it and raced out of the greenhouse and yelled "I got it!" triumphantly.

There was an explosion of applause as he raced toward the crowd. Knuckles couldn't help but laugh a bit as Drake walked out positively pissed off.

"You know what, Drake…" said Knuckles when Drake approached "maybe Rouge won't be so afraid to go near your hideous face after I comfort her a bit with this."

Drake was now officially pissed off to the maximum, which seemed to please Knuckles very much. Tails came rushing up to Knuckles. "Knuckles, we need to find Sonic, he never came out of the castle from the race!" said Tails anxiously.

"No kidding, we better hurry." replied Knuckles.

They ran towards the race entrance and began to look everywhere. They even checked behind paintings and tapestries in case he fell through a secret passageway.

After searching that path as much as they could, Tails and Knuckles collapsed on a stone bench outside. Knuckles pulled his chaos emerald out of his invisible pocket and examined it with admiration.

" Knuckles, do you think Sonic is alright?" asked Tails.

"Sure!" he said convincingly. "He'll be fine. Shadow probably just shoved him into a wall and knocked him out for a bit. He'll be fine."

Tails looked up at the sky and sighed. "You can see the stars so easily out here, and they are so pretty. You can't see them like this in the city." said Tails dreamily.

"Yeah…" said Knuckles looking up at the sky.

"Wait a minute, did we just have a girly moment?" asked Tails.

"As far as I know, that never happened." replied Knuckles.

Tails and Knuckles went back to the ballroom and Tails was ecstatic to see a familiar face.

"Sonic! You're back, what happened?" cried Tails.

Sonic was sitting on his bunk with a cast on his right leg going from is toes all the way up to his thighs. It pretty much covered his entire leg.

"Hey Tails, I broke my leg in the race. I managed to trip over a chair some idiot threw in front of me." said Sonic.

"He was a slow runner anyways and gave up the race so he could set up the track. The lazy cheater." huffed Amy who was sitting next to Sonic.

Knuckles went up to Sonics bunk to explain the hunt in full detail while Tails went up to Star-la and Susie.

"Star-la, Susie, can I ask you something?" asked Tails.

"Sure, what's up?" asked Star-la.

"When your plane crashed, was there anybody else left, well…alive?" asked Tails.

"No." said Susie. "We were the only people left from what we could tell."

"Are you sure?" asked Tails.

"Positive." answered Star-la.

Tails sighed and slumped off to bed. No matter what they said, that dream still seemed real to him.

Sonic sat up straight in his bunk and adjusted the position of his leg.

"So, anyone have a good story?" asked Sonic.

Nobody answered.

"Come on, anybody?"

No answer.

"Come on you guys. Who haven't we heard from?"

Everybody pointed at Shadow.

Shadow looked around. "Why the hell do you all have to point at me? It doesn't matter though. I've got a story. Now, this is how it goes…"

-story-

There was a girl babysitting for these parents who were going to an all night party. She was the kind of popular girl, you know, a cheerleader and everything, Anyways, she was babysitting these twins, and they were real afraid something bad was going to happen to them. So the babysitter promised that she would go up and check on them no matter what to make sure they were ok.

So the girl went downstairs and flicked on the television. There was a news report up that some crazy lunatic or killer was on the loose and he was believed to be in the area. So the girl went around and made sure all the doors and windows were locked. But she conveniently forgot to lock the cellar door. So guess what, the killer got in and hacked the girl's arms off at the elbows.

The twins heard the noise downstairs, but they suspected the girl was just moving furniture. And, for the remainder of the night, they heard this odd noise. Thump thump dra-ag. Thump thump dra-ag. It kept the twins up all night.

When the parents got home, the saw the stairs covered in blood, and the dead babysitter at the top of the stairs. She apparently was trying to get to the twins. It was either to check on them like she promised, to get help, or out of her own insanity kill the twins herself.

-story end-

"Come on, everybody's heard this story!" said Knuckles.

"I haven't." said Tails.

"Well, a lot of people have. It's just an urban legend." said Sonic.

"I thought it was cool, someone tell another!" said Tails.

"I have one." said Star-la.

-story-

There was this group of people drilling for oil in Algeria around the 60s or so. The group had been drilling the same well for the last year or so. It was supposed to be the deepest oil well in the world.

One day, while the crews were digging, their drill would come back up slightly moist, very hot, and with parts missing. The crew took a break to repair the drill real quick and took a temperature reading in the well. They were getting readings of over 2000 degrees Celsius at some pieces of rock the drill didn't touch.

They began to wonder what was going on down there, so they dropped a microphone down there to figure out what was going on down there.

They slowly dropped the microphone down the well, after a while, all they heard was complete silence. Then, they started to hear this noise, like howling wind. As they lowered the microphone more, they found that it wasn't wind making that noise, it was moans and screams from down below, the sound of all the tortured souls of Heck.

They stopped drilling the well and hoped to God that whatever was down there, stayed down there.

-story end-

"I've never heard that one before," said Knuckles slightly shaken.

"I don't remember where I heard it. Probably "The National Inquirer" or something." said Star-la.

"That was scary…" said Susie.

"Cool how about a-" started Sonic.

"NO!" screamed Tails.

Everybody looked at Tails.

"Uh, I just thought that…we should just go to bed and save some stories for the bonfire tomorrow…" added Tails sheepishly.

"Sounds like a plan, I'm beat." said Knuckles with a yawn.

"Me too, whipping Sonics ass may not be that hard, but I'm still a bit tired." said Shadow.

"If my leg wasn't broken, I'd destroy you." said Sonic.

Everybody got under the covers and drifted to sleep.

-nightmare-

The gray cat awoke in her small area, still completely trapped with no way out. She put her shirt over her mouth and began to beat on an area of the plane where there was only a sheet of metal in her way of freedom. She picked a rock up off the ground and began to dent the metal up, but it wouldn't move or give in. She tried to push on the rubble on top of her, but she wasn't strong enough. A gust of wing blew and more ash blew into the area. She began to cough and rubbed ash out of her now bloodshot eyes.

She desperately tried to lift up the sheet metal, but as she did, the rubble above her shifted and when she set the sheet metal down again out of exhaustion, the roof went down farther leaving her in an even more cramped area. She helplessly tried to push the rubble around, but only succeeded in blowing around more ash. She coughed into her arm and fell cold to the ground.

-nightmare end-

Tails woke up from the dream, he had once again broke into a cold sweat, but wasn't so shocked. He sat up straight and tried to regain his thoughts.

That gray cat again… he had no clue why she kept coming up in his mind. He remembered Sonic telling him once when he was little that "If you dream the same thing twice, it's bound to mean something". Tails' dreams were like lightning, in a way. They never repeated themselves, they always seemed different. This couldn't be a normal dream.

The cat now seemed in even more danger, the walls were closing in on her AND she was probably dying of thirst because she had already swallowed so much ash. Tails wished Drake didn't have the grounds patrolled, or he could go out there right now.

Tails sighed and lay his head on his pillow again. There was nothing he could to, he was helpless. All he could do was pray that the girl survived to see true daylight again.

**(I'm making this story too corny aren't I? It's like my friends say "We aren't corny, we're cheesy!". Anyways… thanks for all of the reviews, hope that you guys liked this chapter. I'm still obsessed with finishing this story, but school starts Wednesday! NOOOOO! SCHOOL! GET IT AWAY! Anyways… I won't have as much time to write my story, so you won't get updates as often. 8th grade is gonna suck, I can tell that much. BYE!)**


	16. A few stories

**(Chapter 16! It's go time (god that sucked). After reading your reviews, I realized that Sky is gonna kill me. Anyways, I'm trying to finish this story before I get too far in the school year. Thanks for all the reviews. You are so nice (tear). This chapter is dedicated to…………………….um……MY 7th GRADE ENGLISH TEACHER! For reminding me to space after a period, to make paragraphs, and use exclamation points! See that? Right there, exclamation(!) I did learn something in your class! Ok then, on with the story!)**

The next morning, Tails looked out one of the stained glass windows and saw the blurred image of a guard by the forest edge. He still couldn't do anything about that plane crash.

As he walked to breakfast he noticed Sonic up ahead limping on makeshift crutches.

"Hey, Sonic!" yelled out Tails.

He raced up to Sonic to help him along to the dining room.

"You know Tails, it's nice of you to help me, but I'll be fine. And as soon as I get this cast off, I'm facing Shadow in a rematch." said Sonic.

"Right now, concentrate more on getting better. I can't make it to Drake's hideout because he's got guards on patrol." said Tails.

"Hmmm, then who says we set up a little distraction?" asked Sonic.

"Like what?" asked Tails.

"I'll tell you after breakfast." he replied as they approached the dining room door.

When they entered there was a flash of pink and blue and Amy had Sonic pinned on the wall.

"Sonic are you all right? Is your leg feeling better? I hope you feel better!" said Amy rather fast.

"Amy!" Sonic wheezed.

"What?" asked Amy still gripping Sonic.

"Air!"

"Oh, sorry Sonic." said Amy releasing him from a rib-cracking hug.

"You know Amy, maybe you should try putting egghead in a headlock of doom." said Sonic.

"Ewww, touch that stupid moustache monkey? No way!" replied Amy.

"Wait a second, I just realized, didn't Drake kidnap you?" asked Knuckles.

"Kidnap me? No! I just went into town to buy a pretty dress for the ball next week. I had to stay at this icky motel though." said Amy.

"You mean, you WEREN'T kidnapped?" asked Tails.

" Of course not! You know Sonic, speaking of ball…" said Amy.

"Can we talk about this later?" asked Sonic.

"Of course!"

Tails snickered. So Drake didn't have Amy, but what about Cream? Amy would know if she had gone to town too. And Rouge, she had been gone for a while. Tails knew for a fact she didn't just disappear off to the mall.

He dwelt on the subject while he ate breakfast. When he finished, he was once again the only person left in the room.

He walked out into the hallway and made his way to the ballroom. On his way, he heard the voices of Amy and Sonic talking. He peered around a corner ad saw them talking.

"Come on Sonic, you know it." whispered Amy.

"Amy, I think that-"

"Sonic, I know and you know, so just say it!" she whispered.

Sonic threw his head back and closed his eyes. He mumbled something under his breath.

"Hmm?" asked Amy.

He mumbled again.

"I can't hear."

"YES! OK, YES!" yelled Sonic.

Tails put his hand over his mouth and ran to the ballroom. When he managed to get to his bed, he sat down and began to laugh his head off.

Everybody else was looking at him like a lunatic.

Tails finally stopped laughing and said "It's nothing."

Shadow had cocked an eyebrow and Susie and Star-la were looking at him like he was a madman.

Knuckles was smirking, he must've guessed what happened . He mouthed "Did he say yes?"

Tails nodded and Knuckles began to laugh into his pillow.

When Amy and Sonic came into the room, Tails and Knuckles both grinned widely.

"What are you so happy about?" asked Amy.

"Oh, umm…Tails said that, he had a ghost story to tell." said Knuckles.

Tails mouthed to Knuckles "I do?"

Knuckles nodded vigorously.

"Uh, right! Yeah, my um…story." said Tails.

Sonic cocked an eyebrow, but didn't say anything.

"Ok. It goes a little like this…."

-story-

There was this girl babysitting one night-

-interruption-

"Wait a second, haven't we heard this one before?" asked Shadow.

"It's different, so shut up and listen." said Tails.

"Now, anyways…"

-story-

The babysitter was reading a book while the kids were playing with their toys. While she was reading, one of the younger kids told the babysitter "Clown hurt me."

The babysitter didn't understand, then she noticed a toy clown about the size of the children.

"Don't be silly, it's just a toy." she said, and she went back to her book.

Then, the oldest kid who was probably around five said "The clown hit me." the babysitter closed her book and looked at the clown.

"You are just being silly, clowns don't hit, they make you laugh." said the babysitter.

The kid just shook his head and said "Not this clown."

The babysitter called the parents and told them the kids were all right. When she asked them how to turn off their toy clown the parents replied "They don't have a toy clown."

-story end-

"That's scary, did it mean it was like, a ghost or something?" asked Amy.

"Hey, I remember that story, it really happened around our neighborhood." said Sonic.

"Exactly. It was a really short guy that would hurt kids for fun while they were watched by a babysitter or something, then he would kill them at night and the babysitters would be blamed." said Tails.

"And if they told them the truth at court…" started Star-la.

"They wouldn't believe them because it is so unrealistic." finished Susie.

"That's a pretty clever plan." said Knuckles.

Everybody looked at him weirdly.

"What? It's not like I would go around doing that. It would be a giveaway seeing there aren't many red echidna clown toys out there." said Knuckles protectively.

"Yeah, but there are also a lot of idiots out there." said Shadow.

"Yep, just like you." replied Knuckles.

"Ok then, enough you two." said Sonic. "Who else has a good story?"

"I do." said Susie raising her hand feebly.

"Ok then, let's hear it."

-story-

One day, at a wedding reception, the guests decided on a drunken game of hide and seek. The groom and bride agreed and they all went to hide while the groom had to find them.

In a matter of time, the groom found everybody except the bride. He got everybody together and they all looked for her, calling her name and yelling that she could come out now, but they got no answer.

After searching for hours, the groom decided that she had second thoughts about marriage and fled the scene to get on with her life as usual, so the groom followed suit. He never got married, but he did adopt two kids and fostered some whenever he could. He became a kind man and forgot about the incident, until one day he got a call from the morgue. They said they had found a girl in a trunk at the place the wedding reception was held, and the girl turned out to be his missing wife.

-story end-

"Omigosh, did that really happened?" asked Amy.

"From what I can tell, no. I overheard the story from a couple of people sitting near us on the airplane." said Susie.

"Where were you two going on that airplane anyways?" asked Knuckles.

"That is for us to know, and you to find out." answered Star-la.

"Ok then, any other stories?" asked Sonic.

"I've got one!" squealed Amy.

"Uh, ok then." replied Sonic.

"Alright, this really happened, so pay attention.

-story-

One Halloween, Amy was driving home from a party dressed as a witch. She was driving to her apartment when she noticed a girl walking on the side of the road. **( Wait, can Amy drive?) **She pulled over and asked her if she needed a ride.

The girl nodded and climbed into the car. She gave her address and hoped she wasn't to far from where Amy was going. Amy told her it was no big deal and made her way to the address.

As she watched the girl in her rear view mirror, she noticed that her hands and shoulders were badly scarred and she had a series of long scratches going across her face.

When she arrived at the address, Amy turned around and the girl was gone, which was odd because she never heard the car door open. Amy noticed that she had left her overcoat in the car and grabbed it from the backseat. She walked up to the house and rang the doorbell.

It was answered by an old man with wispy hair. She told him that the girl had left her overcoat in her car.

The man smiled and said "Every Halloween that overcoat goes missing, and every Halloween night my dead daughter leaves it for someone to bring back."

-story end-

"That did not happen." said Tails.

"Yes it did." protested Amy.

"Last time you told me that story, you said it never really happened." replied Tails.

"Well last time I told you the story you were littler and I didn't want to scare you." said Amy.

"Yeah right." huffed Tails with his arms crossed.

"I wouldn't have gotten scared anyways. It's not even a scary story." said Tails.

"Which is why you slept with the lights on in your room for the next week or two." smirked Amy.

Tails mumbled something under his breath that sounded oddly like "So did you."

"Right, anyways, who has another story?"

"How about Knucklehead?" asked Shadow.

"Why, yes. Knucklehead DOES have a story to tell." answered Knuckles.

-story-

One day, some old woman was putting her groceries in the trunk of her car and some nice little kids asked if they could help her out. She accepted their help graciously **(If that's a word.) **and they helped her load her trunk.

When they were finished, they closed the trunk and walked away with grins on their faces. The old woman guessed that they were just glad to help. She drove away, but noticed she was being followed by someone.

She guessed that they were just going the same way as she was, but when she parked in her driveway, they did the same. So she got out of her car and said "What do you want?" they replied "Don't open your trunk, a kid is in there with a knife."

-story end-

"I heard that really happened." said Star-la.

"I think it did, only it was an adult or something like that. It wasn't a kid." replied Knuckles.

"Ok, anybody else have a story?" asked Sonic.

Tails looked out of the stained glass window near his bunk and noticed that there was nobody on guard.

Anxious to check out that plane crash, he slipped out of the ballroom and sped outside to the woods.

He looked around to make sure he wasn't being followed, nobody was around, so he ran as deep in as he could before anybody could notice him. He stopped to take a breath and walked on through the forest.

After walking for a while, he was afraid he was lost, but he saw a clearing ahead.

He ran towards it and could only stare in awe at what he saw.

A plane had crashed head first into the ground and had broken in half. Both of the wings had snapped in half and chairs and suitcases were thrown all over the place.

He walked up to the plane and noticed that there was a pile of rubble similar to the one in his dreams by the wing of the plane. He ran up to it and began to dig through it, this must be where the cat was, it was just as he remembered.

He dug through the pile and expected to see the gray cat laying there were her brown hair covering her face like she was the last time he dreamt about her.

Instead, Tails screamed at the sight before him.

A skeleton lay curled up among the rubble, some of it's brown hair still matted on it's skull. Tails thought it must be the wrong person, but then he noticed the familiar runes scratched onto the plane.

Tails fell to his knees and began to cry, he was too late. A couple of years too late.

What he saw were glimpses of the past. Snippets of the last hours of her life.

On the wing of the plane was the name "Autumn". That must've been who the cat was.

A tear landed on the skeleton as Tails thought "I should never have come here. I would rather just keep on dreaming about her than see her actual fate."

Tails finally stood up and wiped the tears from his face. He was going to bury her, let her rest in peace.

He began to dig a deep hole with his hands and lowered the skeleton into the grave.

Sadly, he took the wing of the plane and used it as a tombstone at her grave, with her name at the bottom. Tails grabbed a stick and scratched "R.I.P" below her name and gave her his last respects.

He couldn't believe it. After thinking that he would be able to save her, to let her live, he found her already dead for a long time.

He didn't even know why she was in his dreams. She was already dead by time he came here, he couldn't have helped her. All he could do was bury her in the ground and find out who she was.

After Tails left the woods, he never spoke of the incident again, but the grief for the cat, still remained.

On the way back, Tails noticed another clearing were he was guessing Star-la and Susie had crashed.

Tails began to wonder how many people had died in these woods. Either on impact, or slowly and painfully, like Autumn.

**(Awww, it's so sad! I had top force myself to do that, I didn't want to because it was so miserable. I felt so sorry for Tails (sniff). Anyways, I hope you guys liked those stories. They were not my originals. They were urban legends. I'm running out of ideas! If you have a good scary story that you wouldn't mind me putting in this story, e-mail me! Anyways, NO! SCHOOL IN TWO DAYS! DON'T MAKE ME GO!)**


	17. The truth revealed, sorta

**(Chapter 17! Hoorah! Anyways, I hope this chapter doesn't suck, it better not or 17 isn't my official lucky number anymore and I'm going back to 4. Not much to say about this chapter. I NEED STORIES! My creative gauge is going down slightly and I can't think of decent scary stories. I've been looking around snopes for the last hour trying to find some good urban legends. And for those of you who are wondering, yes I have given up on the "Death to Amy" thing. But I'm still iffy on the Sonamy coupling. Enough rambling though, I'll just give you what you want. Um, what do you want? Oh yeah, the story.)**

As Tails walked back towards the castle, he noticed Lucius and Veronica talking with Drake again. He ducked behind a bush and listened carefully.

"Drake, this has gone far enough, you have your kill, now finish it off and leave, before they suspect you." said Veronica.

"Too late for that I'm afraid." said Drake. "Besides, the more I have now, the less I'll need next time."

"But it will also increase your yearning, you'll need more to live off of next time." said Lucius.

"You are being ridiculous. I'll be fine, not to worry." said Drake.

"That's what you said before you took our lives. We do not wish to feed of blood as you do, but we know that more blood now will mean more killings later, not to mention if that bat girl finds a taste for blood. The death rates will go through the roof, and we will be suspected of murder." said Veronica anxiously.

"Not murder, dear Veronica. Like you two said before, we are but parasites living off another. We are not murderers." replied Drake.

"Drake, you don't understand, if they figure out what is happening they will give you the stake! That we don't mind, it's better than what it is like now." said Lucius.

"Lucius, the reason I don't let you accept death is because I need you to own the castle, it won't go to me if you die. Besides, you keep those rascals in line. If you weren't around, they would have destroyed my plans by now. You strike fear into their hearts. They believe that you are voluntary bloody-suckers, but you won't do anything to them." said Drake.

"But Drake, what if you ran out of blood and went mad after being used to drinking so much at once?" asked Veronica.

"I'll feed on your servants. They aren't good at keeping the place clean anyways. I can put some better humans into a trance." said Drake.

"No Drake, we won't allow it." said Lucius.

"I'd watch your slippery tongue if I were you Lucius. I can always make your bride think my way." said Drake as his eyes began to glow faintly red.

"It doesn't work on-" started Lucius.

"Voluntary vampires, Lucius. I believe you have read the manual. It only won't work if your wife becomes voluntary, then she will be resistant to hypnotizing." said Drake.

Lucius sighed.

"Fine then, but mark my words, your end will not be far ahead." said Lucius.

"Consider them marked." said Drake with raised eyebrows.

Lucius and Veronica stalked off towards the greenhouse while Drake went in Tails' direction.

Tails crouched lower behind the bush and thought "So Lucius and Veronica are involuntary, that means…"

Drake drew closer as Tails thought to himself.

"I have to go, now. Before Drake realizes."

"Realizes what, kind sir?" came Drake's silky voice.

Drake was standing there by the bush smirking.

"You can-" began Tails.

"Read minds, yes. A skill I have mastered over the ages that Veronica and Lucius seem to ignore. Of course, involuntary vampires are less powerful than voluntaries." Drake replied.

"What have you done with Rouge and Cream?" demanded Tails.

"Ah yes, the fruit bat and the hare. You will be meeting them shortly." chuckled Drake.

"What do you-" Tails was cut off as Drake knocked him unconscious.

Back in the ballroom, everybody was still swapping stories while Tails was gone, his disappearance gone completely unnoticed.

"Hey, did you know L.Ron.Hubbard started the church of Scientology when someone bet him he couldn't make his own religion?" said Sonic.

"That's nothing, I heard that around Halloween, people hide needles and razors inside apples." said Knuckles.

"Ouch, that would hurt to bite into one." said Star-la.

"I did once, I had to get stitches on the top of my mouth." said Amy.

"That's what you get for eating unwrapped candy or fruit." said Susie.

"That's what our teacher always told us around Halloween, but I never believed her." said Amy.

"And look what happened to you." said Sonic.

"It seemed like it was made-up at the time." said Amy.

"Hey was it a needle or a razor?" asked Sonic.

"A razor, a needle would've hurt less." replied Amy.

"Yeah, but you would probably get hit with some LSD." said Shadow.

"Do I want to know what that is?" asked Amy.

"You tell me." smirked Shadow.

"Hey, speaking of LSD, did you know that gang members use to swab that stuff on telephones and dials in phone booths?" asked Sonic.

"Yeah, and they would drive around at night with their headlights off and the first person to flash them a warning would get shot." said Knuckles.

"Didn't that happen around Toledo?" asked Amy.

"Yeah, gang members would also hide under cars and slit peoples ankles and steal a shoe as proof they did it." said Knuckles.

"Once again, ouch." said Star-la.

"Hey, what about the one were the old lady outs her dog in the microwave to dry him off after a bath and it explodes?" asked Sonic.

"Poor dog." said Susie.

"What about the mummy that brought down the titanic?" said Shadow.

Nobody answered. All eyes were on Shadow.

"You're telling me you never heard that one?" said Shadow.

Everyone shook their head no.

"Ok, it goes like this…."

-story-

In the late 1890s, 4 rich young Englishmen visiting the excavations at Luxor were invited to buy an exquisitely fashioned mummy case containing the remains of Princess of Amen-Ra.

They drew lots. The man who won paid several thousand pounds and had the coffin taken to his hotel. A few hours later, he was seen walking out towards the desert. He never returned.

The next day, one of the remaining 3 men was shot by an Egyptian servant accidentally. His arm was so severely wounded it had to be amputated.

The third man in the foursome found on his return home that the bank holding his entire savings had failed. The fourth guy suffered a severe illness, lost his job and was reduced to selling matches in the street.

Nevertheless, the coffin reached England (causing other misfortunes along the way), where it was bought by a London businessman.

After 3 of his family members had been injured in a road accident and his house damaged by fire, the businessman donated it to the British Museum.

As the coffin was being unloaded from a truck in the museum courtyard, the truck suddenly went into reverse and trapped a passerby. Then as the casket was being lifted up the stairs by 2 workmen, 1 fell and broke his leg. The other, apparently in perfect health, died unaccountably two days later.

Once the Princess was installed in the Egyptian Room, trouble really started. The Museum's night watchmen frequently heard frantic hammering and sobbing from the coffin. Other exhibits in the room were also often hurled about at night. One watchman died on duty; making the other watchmen wanting to quit. Cleaners refused to go near the Princess too. When a visitor derisively flicked a dustcloth at the face painted on the coffin, his child died of measles soon afterwards.

Finally, the authorities had the mummy carried down to the basement figuring it could not do any harm down there. Within a wk, one of the helpers was seriously ill, and the supervisor of the move was found dead on his desk.

By now, the papers had heard of it. A journalist photographer took a picture of the mummy case and when he developed it, the painting on the coffin was of a horrifying, human face. The photographer was said to have gone home then, locked his bedroom door and shot himself.

Soon afterwards, the museum sold the mummy to a private collector. After continual misfortune (and deaths), the owner banished it to the attic.

A well known authority on the occult, Madame Helena Blavatsky, visited the premises. Upon entry, she was sized with a shivering fit and searched the house for the source of &an evil influence of incredible intensity; She finally came to the attic and found the mummy case.

Can you exorcise this evil spirit? Asked the owner. There is no such thing as exorcism. Evil remains evil forever. Nothing can be done about it. I implore you to get rid of this evil as soon as possible.

But no British museum would take the mummy; the fact that almost 20 people had met with misfortune, disaster or death from handling the casket, in barely 10 years, was now well known.

Eventually, a hardheaded American archaeologist (who dismissed the happenings as quirks of circumstance), paid a handsome price for the mummy and arranged for its removal to New York. In Apr 1912, the new owner escorted its treasure aboard a sparkling, new White Star liner about to make its maiden voyage to New York.

On the night of April 14, amid scenes of unprecedented horror, the Princess of Amen-Ra accompanied 1,500 passengers to their deaths at the bottom of the Atlantic. The name of the ship was of course, the H.M.S. TITANIC

-story end-

"That's a creepy story." shivered Amy.

"Yeah, but we asked for a story, not a history lesson." said Sonic.

"Well you sure could use one." replied Shadow.

"How do you know that after being stuck on the ARK half of your life?" asked Knuckles.

"Prof. Gerald had a lot of books on the ARK about earth. One of which was a book of legends. THAT was one of them." answered Shadow.

"So that story isn't real?" asked Amy.

"Of course not. That mummy never left Luxor. It's still in that museum." said Shadow.

"Anyways, I think that after hearing about it's reputation, the captain of Titanic wouldn't let that mummy on board, would he?" asked Star-la.

"Unless he never heard of it, or unless he was skeptical and never believed the curse. Of course, he's probably regretting his doubt now seeing how he is swimming with the fishes." said Sonic.

"Ok, now that we've cleared up that topic, let me ask you something. Where's Tails?" asked Susie,

Tails woke up to find him in Drake's secret cove again, only this time he was behind iron bars. He ran up to the jail door and shook it yelling "Let me out." there was no answer.

Tails shook the bars harder and yelled even louder, but he still received no answer.

Tails turned around and slumped down against the bars. He sighed and looked around. In the cell were Rouge and Cream.

"Rouge, Cream!" cried Tails.

The two captives woke up from their sleep and cried "Tails!"

Cream ran up to Tails and hugged him tight.

"Tails, I'm so glad you're here!" cried Cream.

Tails began to blush. Rouge smirked at him and leaned against the cove wall.

"Cream, what's going on? What has Drake been doing?" asked Tails.

"Nothing to me. He did bash my head open, but he stitched me up before I managed to wake up from the incident." answered Cream pointing at the stitches on her head.

"Rouge, you've been here longer, what about you?" asked Tails.

"Drake has been slitting my wrist and getting blood that way." said Rouge pointing at the numerous cuts and scars on her wrist.

"Well from what I heard, Drake doesn't plan on letting you live, Cream. An Rouge, you won't be a fruit bat for much longer." said Tails.

"That bastard." said Rouge. Cream put her hand over her mouth. "I should've known he was an idiot. I fell for him like a lovesick puppy." huffed Rouge.

"It's not your fault. He had you in a trance, and apparently, the servants too." said Tails.

"What else do you know: asked Rouge.

"That Lucius and Veronica are not voluntary vampires. They said they would rather take the stake then survive like this, but Drake is using them and he won't let them get killed. They don't even suck blood! They are totally helpless. Drake said that if Lucius let his secrets slip, he would hypnotize Veronica." answered Tails.

"So that means that Drake is the real culprit here." said Rouge.

**(Heheheh, that final Rouge quote makes her sound like Lani Minella (the girl that does her voice) when she does Nancy Drew in the Nancy Drew computer games (which I have 8 of). Anyways, I should have the story finished around mid-September. It's all going by so fast! I can't believe I've almost finished my first ever fanfic…………..enough of me. Before I forget, the story of the mummy that brought down the Titanic was (ahem) borrowed from snopes. I'll try to hurry with the next chapter!)**


	18. Drake Defeated, we say our goodbyes

**(Yay! Chapter 18! Thanks for all of the reviews. This chapter may be a bit weird; I was drinking some bitter tea while writing it. That's what I get. Anyways, still iffy on the Sonamy coupling. Hmmmm, who should be the person that fights Drake…………. I'll think of that later. For now, it's story time!)**

"We need to find a way out of here, and fast." said Tails. "Drake will finish us off as soon as he has more people to feed off of."

"We can't. Cream and I have tried everything. We can't spring ourselves out." said Rouge.

"Can't you just dig your way out?" asked Tails.

"Sure, but we encounter water, and it's too far from the surface., we'll suffocate before we hit air." answered Rouge.

"That, I can help you with." said Tails.

He reached into one of his invisible pockets and pulled out Knuckle's air necklace.

"Rouge, I want you to dig a hole. Cream, you are going to use the air necklace to swim back to shore and warn the others." said Tails.

"But why me?" asked Cream. "Rouge could go."

"You are smaller, you could escape notice easier. Besides, if Drake gets us before you get back, Rouge will just be immortal, you'd be dead if Rouge went instead." answered Tails.

"But what about you?" asked Cream.

Tails didn't answer.

"Tails?"

"Just go Cream, thee isn't any time."

Rouge quickly dug a hole leading into the water. Cream put on the air necklace. She glanced at Tails one more time before she dove into the water.

Tails leaned against the cave wall and fell to the ground. Rouge walked up to him with her arms crossed.

"So, what do we do until Cream gets back?" asked Rouge.

"We wait, and we pray. Wait, and pray."

Cream was swimming breaststroke through the cold water. She was trying to get to shore as quick as she could. Nervously, she remembered what Knuckles said about there being a dead body or two at the bottom of the lake. She shivered and tried her best to focus on what was ahead instead of what was below her.

As Cream swam along, she noticed sunlight breaking through the water up ahead, she must've been coming to the front of the cave.

Cream looked down out of curiosity and saw the shadow of a body at the lake bottom.

She screamed and swam away as fast as she could. If she didn't hurry, that would be Tails down there.

Cream ran into a few fish as she swam along and swore she saw a carp twice her size at the bottom of the lake.

As she went on, Cream began to see the lake bottom more clearly now, and the murky waters began to clear up.

She now enjoyed swimming through the water seeing as how it became warmer from being reachable by the sun's rays.

After about an hour of swimming, Cream broke water and took of the air necklace to breath the cool, fresh air. She slowly waded to the shore and touched the warm sand. She ran along, not bothering to dry herself off or stop to feel the sun's warmth.

She made it to the castle and ran through the twisting corridors until she reached the ballroom and burst through the doors.

She ran in and yelled "You guys have to come, quick!"

Everybody stared at her for a second until Amy ran up to her yelling "Cream!"

"Cream, what happened? How did you get those stitches?" asked Amy.

"There's no time to explain, Rouge and Tails are trapped in a cell at Drake's secret cove. They need our help or Rouge is gonna be a vampire and Tails is gonna be dead!"

"Damn it, of all times to break my leg!" cursed Sonic.

"I'll stay with Sonic." said Amy.

"I'll go." said Star-la.

"I will too if it means saving Tails and Rouge." said Susie.

"Hmph, I'll tear that vampire bat to pieces." said Shadow cracking his knuckles.

"Oh no you don't, I'll take care of Drake." said Knuckles pushing Shadow aside.

"Hurry!" said Cream running out the door. She was quickly followed by Shadow, Star-la, Knuckles, and Susie.

When they made it to the lake, Cream ran towards the boathouse, but Shadow grabbed her by the collar.

"That'll take too long, We can just skim the water." said Shadow.

"What do you mean?" asked Cream.

"Just follow my instructions." said Shadow.

Everyone looked around, then nodded.

"Ok, Cream, you'll grab my arms and fly into the air while keeping me on ground. Susie, you grab Star-la by her feet and lift her into the air. Knucklehead will be hung upside down by Star-la. Knucklehead, keep hold of Cream. I don't care how."

Cream shot a look of warning at Knuckles who took a step back.

Everyone followed Shadow's instructions.

"Ok, ready? Here we go." said Shadow.

Shadow ran at full speed towards the lake. Cream prepared for the splash of the water, but it didn't come. Shadow was running so fast, he was skimming the water. The air rushed past Cream's face making it hard to keep her eyes open. Knuckle's hold on her hips was loosening slightly. She hoped they wouldn't break apart, or it would just be Shadow and her.

In about 10 minutes, they covered the distance that took Cream about an hour to swim.

Everybody dropped to land (except Shadow) and stared at the cove for a second.

"What are you staring for, we need to save Rouge and Tails!" said Cream.

They all ran into the cove and ran towards the jail cell.

Tails ran up to the bars and said "Cream, you made it!"

"Tails, how do we get you out of here?" asked Cream.

"I'll take care of that." said Knuckles.

Knuckles lunged towards the jail cell and smashed a hole in the bars.

"You know, Knuckles, you could have just unlocked the door." said Tails pointing at the keys hung on the wall.

"Oh yeah…." replied Knuckles.

Tails and Rouge climbed out of the jail cell. The noise of slow clapping echoed through the cave as Drake walked towards the group.

"Bravo I must say. I congratulate you on escaping my cage, but I'm sorry to say that I'll have to kill you now." said Drake in his usual silky voice.

"I'm sorry to say that I'll have to kill you first." said Knuckles holding his fist in front of him, ready to fight.

Drake cocked an eyebrow and said "Well, maybe I won't kill you. You'd make a nice pet for me and Rouge."

"Your remains will make nice Christmas tree ornaments!" said Knuckles lunging at Drake.

Drake lunged at Knuckles also and the two began to fight.

"Cream, Star-la, Susie, I need you guys to look around for a stake, it's the only thing that can kill him." said Tails.

"A stake?" asked Cream.

"A block of pointy wood. Just go." said Tails.

They nodded and ran off.

"What about me?" asked Rouge.

"I don't know, I'm making this up as I go!" said Tails trying to think.

Knuckles and Drake were still fighting, and Drake seemed to be taking the offensive. For every punch, jab, or kick that Knuckles threw at him, he would swiftly step aside or gracefully block it.

Rouge crossed her arms. "Showoff." she huffed.

Tails was leaning against the wall of the cave thinking. Vampires could only be killed by a stake through the heart , right? Well then that meant that Knuckles would get pummeled if those three wouldn't hurry with that stake. The entire castle has probably been cleared out of stakes so Lucius and Veronica won't accept death. So that means……

"We won't be able to kill Drake." said Tails out loud.

"What?" asked Rouge.

"The island has most likely been cleared out of stakes so that Lucius and Veronica won't accept death. They probably don't even use real wooden table legs."

"Couldn't they just use a tree branch or something?" asked Rouge.

"They probably don't use real trees either. They are all dead. There is probably no such thing as wood in this castle." said Tails.

"Would they really spend so much money on fake wood?" asked Rouge.

"No, but Drake would." said Tails.

"I don't get it though, why go through all that just so he could feed of blood?" asked Rouge.

"Some of us vampires just get desperate, that's all." came Drake's silky voice.

Knuckles was lying on the floor of the cove covered with cuts and scratches.

"You will soon know what5 it's like Rouge, you'll be experiencing it." said Drake as he walked up to Rouge and grabbed her arm.

"Paws off loser." said Rouge attempting to break away from his grasp.

"You can't escape Rouge, I'm stronger than you. You can't defeat me." he laughed making his way to Rouge's neck.

"Well I can."

Drake yelled in pain as a wooden stake plunged through his back. Warm blood oozed from the wound and Drake began to cough up blood.

Knuckles stood up from behind Drake and laughed.

"It was nice knowing you." said Knuckles.

"Knuckles, where did you get that stake?" asked Tails.

"Turns out Drake throws these things at the bottom of the lake. I found it and decided to hide it up here so I could sneak up on him one of these days."

Just then, Susie, Star-la, and Cream appeared.

Cream fainted at the sight of so much blood. Star-la winced and Susie turned slightly green.

"What happened?" asked Star-la.

"I'll explain in the ballroom, let's go." said Tails walking towards Cream and picking her up.

"So then what happened?" asked Sonic.

"Knuckles plunged the stake into Drake's back and hit his heart." said Tails.

"So…Drake is dead now?" asked Sonic.

"Looks like it." said Knuckles.

"But, I don't get it. What'll happen to Lucius and Veronica? Will you kill them too?" asked Amy.

"No, from what I can tell, they don't want to live like this anymore, so…" the words left Tails' mouth.

"Man, I should've been there." said Sonic.

"Well, that's what you get for breaking your leg." said Shadow.

"Once I get out of this cast, you are going down!" said Sonic.

"That's what you think." he replied with a smirk.

"Well, I'm just glad that we are leaving tomorrow." said Cream.

"Tomorrow?" asked Amy. "What about the ball?"

"I overheard Lucius and Veronica saying that it was best if we left early.

"But I finally got Sonic to go out with me!"

Tails and Knuckles burst out laughing. Sonic was literally fuming. Cream, Star-la, and Susie were all giggling. Shadow cocked an eyebrow and had a triumphant smile on his face.

"It's not funny you guys." said Sonic.

"I'm sorry Sonic" said Tails wiping a tear from his cheek. "I couldn't help it."

"I'm sure you could." said Knuckles.

"You sure you guys want to leave early?" asked Tails. "You could stay a day longer."

"Nah, after all that's gone on here, I think we'll leave early." said Star-la.

"Anyways, we need to get to…um, where we were going." said Susie.

"Where WERE you guys going?' asked Knuckles.

"Like I said before, that's for us to know and you to find out." said Star-la.

"Well, see you guys. It's been great." said Sonic.

Star-la and Susie waved goodbye as they walked to the forest path and disappeared into the darkness.

You know, we can still have that party tonight, Amy" said Tails as they walked back to the ballroom.

"Why me." said Sonic hitting himself on the forehead.

"Yeah, we could tell stories and everything." said Cream.

"I think, I've heard enough stories for one vacation." said Tails.

That night, everybody was partying. Tails had managed to get some music playing and Amy and Cream were showing everybody dance moves.

Shadow was sitting in the corner (as usual) rolling his eyes.

"You are pathetic." he said.

"Come on, Shadow. Join the party. Let loose for a while." said Sonic.

"I'd rather chew my leg off." he replied.

"Then start chewing." called Knuckles.

Cream started to giggle a bit. She walked towards the other side of the room and accidentally tripped. Tails caught her in a romantic pose and they just stood there for a second.

Once he snapped out of it, Tails helped Cream to her feet and blushed.

"Uhhh,…" he began.

Cream kissed him on the cheek and skipped off. Tails was frozen to the spot.

"Hey, Tails! Anybody in there?" asked Sonic waving his hand in front of Tails' face.

"What?" asked Tails breaking out of the trance.

"Rabbit got your tongue?" asked Sonic.

"Huh?"

"Never mind." said Sonic.

Amy walked up to Sonic.

"Hi!"

"Bye!" said Sonic limping away.

"Come on Sonic, you said yes before." she said fluttering her eyelashes.

Sonic grumbled.

Amy leaned up against him and closed her eyes.

Tails and Knuckles looked at each other and laughed.

The next day, as everybody boarded the plane, Tails looked back at the forest. Autumn was still there, and the sight of her skeleton still fresh in his mind. He guessed that now she could be peaceful.

"Tails?" asked Cream.

"What?"

"The plane is going to take off soon, we have to get on." said Cream.

"Oh, yeah. Let's go." said Tails.

They went up the stairs and got on the plane. Tails stared out the window and noticed Lucius and Veronica waving goodbye.

The next day, everybody got off of the plane and left the airport.

"Well, I guess this is goodbye, for now." said Sonic.

"Yeah well, see you." said Shadow before speeding off.

"Bye everybody!" said Amy. Amy hugged Sonic and walked away.

"Sonics getting all mushy on us." said Knuckles.

"Can it Knuckles." said Sonic.

"Looks like it's time for me to go too." said Rouge. She winked at Knuckles before walking away.

Cream hugged Tails and said "I think I have to go too, my mom probably misses me."

Cream ran off.

"Well guys, let's head home."

**(THE END! Wow, I ended this story so horribly, don't worry though, I plan on writing another crappy story that you can berate me about. It's been fun, BYE! (Skips away)**


End file.
